


New Faces, New Hitches

by katabulo, Muspell



Category: Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: 10 thing I hate about you no homo, Bromantic Comedy, Celebrity culture, Eventual Otayuri, Fake/Pretend Relationship, High School, M/M, Pre-Series, Seniors JJ and Leo, Sophomore Otabek, Strangers to Lovers to Bros
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-28
Updated: 2017-02-06
Packaged: 2018-09-20 11:11:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 38,354
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/katabulo/pseuds/katabulo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Muspell/pseuds/Muspell
Summary: There was a new guy at school who also happened to be a figure skater. Leo wanted to make him feel welcome.Otabek would much rather be left alone. However, much to his displeasure, compromises will have to be made.





	1. What the Cat Dragged In

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you [blackmountainbones](http://archiveofourown.org/users/blackmountainbones), [ModernArt](http://archiveofourown.org/users/ModernArt2012/pseuds/ModernArt2012) and [Nau](http://archiveofourown.org/users/fatrock) for being our beta readers!
> 
> This came about from a discussion about cameos and throwaway lines. Leo is seen in the background of one of JJ's flashbacks. What if they were rinkmates? JJ and Leo both have lines implying they know Otabek. What if they were all rinkmates? What if they were rinkmates all at the same time? What if they went to high school together?!
> 
> Then it got weird. We hope you enjoy!

Leo was ready to fall asleep right on the rink. His coach had been brutal these last few weeks. Yes, he’d made a few… quite serious blunders in his senior debut, but he hadn’t been that bad! This is what happened when you had rinkmates like the obnoxiously talented prodigy JJ.

He saw the new guy skating away on his own while he was unlacing his skates. The Junior skater been here for a week already, but no one had tried to welcome him, or approach him in any way.

Well, truth be told, no one dared. Not even Leo.

The guy was always polite and quiet, yet forcefully distanced himself from the others and had a permanent murderous scowl on his face. He was terrifying.

Fine, he was younger than Leo. Shorter, too. And yet, he still looked like he could rip someone to shreds with his bare hands.

“Ah, he’s just some kid, don’t look so freaked out.” Leo almost jumped three feet in the air when JJ’s voice sounded behind him.

JJ was admittedly amazing. Tall, confident, popular... Never quite knew when to shut up, sure, and utterly shameless regarding PDA, but he was nice; he didn’t mean wrong.

“Hey, Altin!” JJ shouted. The new guy turned around, immediately glaring. Everyone had been ordered to leave the ice, so the boy had no other option but to approach him. He clipped on the blade guards and raised his head to see a widely grinning guy running for him, arms open. Instinct kicked in.

JJ hissed as he opened his eyes, a sharp pain running through his spine where it had hit the floor like a dead weight. He was being held up by a tight grip on his arms. He followed the hand on his bicep back to the owner with his eyes and-

“Is this how you were taught to say hello, new guy?” He was smiling again. It was wonderful how easy it was for him to be so cheerful. Almost contagious. Leo grinned back and got up to help JJ off the ground, as soon as the boy let him go.

“He’s not bad, you know? Just pretty straight forward.” The boy looked at him blankly. His expression was completely unreadable. This was gonna be hard work. “My name is Leo. Leo de la Iglesia. And you are?”

The boy stared at the hand Leo offered at him but did nothing; Leo retracted and scratched the back of his neck awkwardly.

“Otabek Altin.”

“Cool name. This is JJ. I promise he’s nice.” Otabek looked at the grinning figure behind him and let his eyes fall back into Leo’s gaze. “Where are you from, by the way?”

He sat on the bench to take off the skates. “Kazakhstan.” He spoke in a monotone

Leo blinked? Wasn’t Otabek a sophomore? Kazakhstan was way too far for a 15-year-old to come alone, yet Leo hadn’t seen anyone but the coaches around him. The kid couldn’t possibly be okay with that, even if Leo couldn’t find a trace of emotion in the new guy’s voice.

Otabek. Otabek’s voice. He would remember that name.

He would have to remember to look for where the hell is Kazakhstan too. Leo could only recall that it was near Russia. Maybe. Or was it China? And as a senior, it was probably on him to help Otabek settle in, since he was clearly out of his comfort zone.

* * *

The school bell snapped Otabek out from his thoughts: there was still lunchtime and half of the day left, yet he was already drifting away. He must be more stressed than he’d realised.

This high school wasn’t too bad, he figured. He’d been sent to worse places. This coach was alright, too, although her comments about how “unremarkable” he looked were rather annoying. What did she mean by that? How was he meant to improve that? He wanted to have his senior debut this season; it would be nice to have some more information.

He honestly wasn’t sure how he’d expected Leroy to be. He’d hoped that the rising skater was more tolerable in person than he looked on TV, but that didn’t seem to be the case. At least the other guy, Leo, was decent. Even if Otabek wasn’t planning to be close friends with either of them. He was here to get his career in motion, nothing more.

“Hey, you new here?”

The flirtatious tone was voiced as Otabek opened his locker. Shit… Otabek didn’t have time for this.

“Heh, of course you’re new. I couldn’t miss a cute face like yours.”

“Excuse me,” Otabek replied flatly, shutting his locker with a resounding thud. He muttered low in his throat as his side steps were quickly blocked.

“Aw, don’t be so cold, babe! We haven’t gotten to know each other!”

If this guy didn’t move soon, Otabek swore he was about to-

“Yo, yo, step aside, kid.” Before Otabek could reply, JJ was there, pulling the stranger away by the arm. “Sorry, he’s one of ours.”

“Huh?” The guy pouted at Otabek, “You’re an ice skater?”

Otabek simply nodded. How was this relevant? He noticed Leo stepping behind him from the corner of his eye.

“I know, it’s always the good-looking ones, right?” chuckled Leo, “Let’s go, Otabek.”

Otabek allowed himself to be dragged away from the rejected flirt, but he stopped dead when he realised JJ and Leo were taking him to the cafeteria, “Thanks, but I-”

“Nope!” interrupted Leo, holding up a finger, “You don’t have a choice here! You’re our blade bro now, and blade bros stick together!”

Wh- Blade bro-?! Otabek could only smile dumbfoundedly. Who was this guy-?

“The grumps can smile! Am I witnessing a miracle?!” gasped JJ.

...Leo was full of shit. _Nice guy,_ Otabek’s ass.

Neither of them were fazed by the particularly deadly glare Otabek sent their way. They continued making their way to the cafeteria and Otabek, reluctantly decided to follow them. At least, he would have a good place to sit if he was among them, he supposed.

They were waiting for the woman to pile food onto their trays when there was a resounding slap to Otabek’s left. He turned, alarmed, to see a senior girl fondling JJ’s ass with a wicked grin on her face, “How’s the new workout regimen going, JJ?” she asked.

JJ smiled brilliantly, “It’s going great! My muscles are tighter than ever, it’s amazing for my skating.”

“Hmm,” she gave one last squeeze, “It’s amazing for many other things too.” She finally caught Otabek’s eye and gave him an intimidating once-over. “Who’s this cutie? I haven’t seen him before.”

“Oh, he’s new,” replied JJ, “Sophomore. Treat him well if you want to make a move on him, ‘kay?”

Otabek blanched. Was he being pimped out?! He stormed off the second his food landed on his tray, to sit down next to Leo.

Leo, meanwhile, was talking to another girl. Well, she wasn’t so much ‘talking,’ more like ‘trying to sneak her way into Leo’s lap.’

“Sabes, amor? Tengo la casa sola este finde…”[1](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn1) she murmured shamelessly into Leo’s ear. Unlike the previous girl, she didn’t seem to notice Otabek, let alone care that he could hear every word.

“Ah, buenisimo! Yo voy a estar trabajando en mis coreografías esta semana.”[2](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn2) replied Leo. He was either oblivious or preferred to take a very gentle route when rejecting lovers.

“Podrias pasar y mostrarme lo que sabes hacer... contra cada mueble de la casa.”[3](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn3) She pressed herself against him, “Sabes como hacer arte con tu cuerpo, no, Leo?”[4](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn4)

If a thunderstorm turned up now that was so extreme, it completely deafened Otabek, he would welcome it. Was this the reason why his new classmates warned him not to mingle with the Seniors?!

Leo finally pushed her off, not wanting his food to get cold before he could eat it. He flashed a small, sheepish smile at Otabek, until he had a proper look at the younger skater’s face, “You’re bright red.”

Otabek scowled and looked away, “You’re surprised?”

“...How much did you understand?”

Otabek sighed, “All of it. I’ve studied Spanish for years.”

Leo laughed, “Awesome. You can be my little sophomore agent.” He reached over Otabek to take a couple of JJ’s fries off his plate. Said owner had disappeared somewhere, although at this point, Otabek didn’t want to know the details.

“Is this normal?” he asked Leo tentatively, “These girls?”

“Hm? Yeah,” replied Leo, “Most of them are here for JJ, though. I did hear a few of the underclassmen talk about you, but don’t be too worried. I’m sure you’ll keep most of them away just being your grumpy self.”

Otabek gave Leo a small kick, but he hoped it to be true. He wasn’t very good at dealing with attention. Not like Leo, who could push a girl away with a smile as she practically grinded on his leg.

...And clearly not like JJ, who’d just walked back into the cafeteria with his shirt and tie a complete mess. There were tell-tale lipstick marks all over his own lips and jaw.  
“What I miss?” he asked casually, as if he didn’t look like a girl had tried to fish out his tongue with her makeup.

“Otabek speaks Spanish,” said Leo.

...Maybe Otabek needed to reconsider his senior debut. He wasn’t ready for this shit.

* * *

1\. [You, know, love? I have the house free this weekend...][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref1)

2\. [Oh, that’s great! I’ll be working on my choreography this week][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref2)

3\. [You could come by and show what you can do… against every piece of furniture in the house.][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref3)

4\. [You do know how to make art with your body, right, Leo?][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref4)

* * *

Otabek didn’t notice much more unsolicited attention for a while. He was getting more looks, but he supposed that came with being in the same group as a rising celebrity athlete like JJ.

There hadn’t been many people approaching him, other than a curious senior asking if he’d chosen his hairstyle to copy JJ’s. Otabek still fumed at the idea that that rumour had spread around at all.

He took out his helmet from the motorbike’s compartment. It was a cheap, second-hand model, but it would do until he started earning more money as a figure skater.

“Oh, my god!”

“He has a bike!”

…. Shit. Who were these girls? He recognised a couple of them from various classes, but he hadn’t paid much attention to anyone since he’d started the year. JJ and Leo aside, since they wouldn’t leave him alone.

“Can I ride with you, Otabae?”

“Can I go for a ride too?!”

“Can I ride you?”

 _Can you leave me the fuck alone?!_ He couldn’t turn on his engine fast enough. Having that many girls after his skin was terrifying. He’d never dealt with it in his life!

At least, the rink was quiet. Security did a good job of keeping paparazzi and fangirls away from the area. Otabek rested his head in his hands as he tried to get his head back on straight.

“Hey, Otabek! How ya doing, kid?” JJ stormed into the changing room, yelling loudly enough that Otabek was shaken out of his melancholy.

Otabek wasn’t convinced that JJ was the best influence when it came to dealing with fans, but he must have had awkward encounters, right?

“JJ? …. How do you deal with fans when you don’t want to interact with them?”

“Huh?” JJ thought for a second, “Well, it’s not really nice to blow them off, you know? They’re the ones who support you career. And they’re often so sweet!”

“What about the ones who aren’t?”

JJ blinked, then smirked, “Aw, what happened?”

Otabek scoffed, “I was cornered when I got on my bike after school.”

JJ’s eyes widened, “You ride a bike?! That’s badass. You’re gonna get all the girls with that!”

If JJ thought that was going to lift Otabek’s spirits, he was sorely mistaken. Otabek may not use social media much, but he knew he fitted a certain aesthetic with his leather jackets and bike. That was just how he liked to live. Preferably without hordes of screaming fangirls, however.

JJ shrugged, “Don’t worry about it. It’ll calm down eventually. It’s just the new guy hype, now. They’ll move on and come back to me eventually.” At a raised eyebrow from Otabek, he grinned and gave his signature JJ salute, “I’m irresistible to them!”

As annoying as his attitude was, Otabek hoped JJ was right. Better JJ than him, after all.

* * *

There was always someone to wave at in the hallways: Leo was a senior, after all, and known around the school. And he’d be damned if he wasn’t nice and polite to every student he met, or at least tried to be.

He quickened his pace when he saw Otabek slamming the door of his locker. Well, not really slamming, but that was what it looked like to him. Otabek’s shoulders relaxed and he let out a sigh so soft, it could blend in with the crowd’s nonsense. He whirled around when he felt Leo’s hand on his shoulder.

“Let me walk you to your bike, OK?” Otabek said nothing and just followed. Leo was sure something was on his friend’s mind. He looked distracted, out of it, although no one seemed to notice the difference: some random people would wave, they’d get a couple of friendly, and to be honest a bit flirty, comments here and there, some girls would shout out and call out to…

Wait.

He turned around so fast his head could have spun all the way around with the force of the momentum. They called him Otabae? Did that mean…

He was about to say something when he noticed Otabek was already walking half a hallway ahead of him.

“Otabek!” the sophomore wasn’t walking particularly fast, but he most definitely determined to get away: Leo could still catch up. “What’s with the Otabae thing?” He heard the younger boy scoff.

“They’ve been pestering me for a couple of weeks now.” He let out a tired sigh. So, that’s what it was. Girls, uh?

“Sounds like a fan club.” Leo grinned jokingly but it didn’t seem to change Otabek’s mood at all. If anything, he looked more upset now. Almost pouting. How cute.

“How do I stop it?” Leo snorted to the sole idea of it. Stopping fangirls? Otabek should know better. There was just no way. The boy fiddled with the keys in his hand and glared daggers at him: he looked like a child with a tantrum when he was upset, all pouty lips and furrowed brows and silence.

It was endearing. Or worse.

It was fun.

Leo found himself laughing, holding his middle as Otabek huffed and placed the helmet he just took out of the compartment onto the seat.

“There’s no way to stop ’em, man. You can only choose what to feed them. And barely.” Leo was literally wiping tears as his friend would sit and scowl at him. He looked defeated. “Look, they’re not too bad if they’re not too close, ok? Just relax a bit…” He heard a clear slam on the floor behind him. He turned.

The skateboarders. They weren’t rivals per se, as in, two different sports? They’d never face each other. But they were convinced they deserved more attention than they had.  
Especially from the ice skating followers.

Especially from the actual ice skaters, who couldn’t care less that it bothered the skateboarders how often they could miss school because of intensive training or competitions.  
But the skateboarders did make it obvious. And loud.

“So, you’ve got a new fella, we heard.” They eyed at Otabek, slowly lifting from his motorcycle. There were five of them and Leo knew he couldn't take them all, or any since he wasn’t much of a fighter. But Otabek was tired and sick of the school as it was, so Leo couldn’t put this on his shoulders.

“Just take the bike and go, dude, I’ve got this.” But when Leo looked up again there was already a fist rushing to his face. He closed his eyes tight.

The blow never came.

Instead he heard a small whimper and opened his eyes to find one of the bullies, a senior the size of JJ, pressed face down onto the grass, a foot firm between his shoulder blades, and his arm straight up and back in a tight grip, twisted outwards.

He panicked: Otabek wasn’t capable of breaking the bully’s arm, but Leo knew the skill was there.

“No, wait! You’re a sophomore, you’ll get in trouble-” He tried to move closer but three of the skaters did too. He heard a suppressed cry of pain again. Otabek was twisting the guy’s arm further every time he felt they were threatened.

“You defend him now, babe? What are you, like, secret lovers?” One of the skaters smirked at him and Leo recognised the voice, but Otabek did more than that.

He looked straight at him in rage. Leo could almost hear him hissing. He suddenly remembered. The locker guy.

“You’ve got a problem with that?” He was amazed at how well could Otabek keep the composure in his voice. How well could he handle such a situation. How… What did he just say?

“Fine, pretty boy, if that’s how you want it.” The locker guy made a gesture and the skaters retreat to him: Otabek finally let the injured skater go, brushing his arm furiously and mumbling curses under his breath. “Just know, you’d be having much more fun with me than with Swan Lake over there. Your loss.”

Leo understood he should feel hurt by that sentence, but that was the worst attempt at an insult he’s heard in a long time. Man, these guys are lame. He turned to Otabek as he passed in front of him to take his bike.

“What was that just there?” Otabek looked at him impassive. “The thing you said?” He mouthed an “oh”.

“We had two ways out: either I shut them up or I broke the loser’s arm.” Oh. Well, yeah, that sounded fair, right?

He felt something being shoved against his chest and look down to see the helmet. He grabbed it out of reflex.

“Let me take you home.” Leo could have answered a simple yes or no. He could have smiled and thank the thought. He could have done a lot of things.

He decided he deserved some fun after trying to help some kid that didn’t need any help and ended up rescuing him.

He draped over Otabek’s shoulders in the most dramatic manner he could as he voiced “My Hero” so loud he could have sworn his mother had listened to him back home. He welcomed the kick to his stomach giggling, laying on his back.

“Are you coming or not?” Leo shot right up to follow Otabek and straddle behind him; if he kept playing like this he’d have to take the bus, also known as hell on wheels. He fitted the helmet onto his head and wondered out loud, no expecting a response while the engine revving hid his words.

“Do you even like guys?”

“Yes.” He was shocked at the answer. Not because of the answer itself, only because it was there; taking any information out of that guy was virtually impossible, and he just told him he was gay? “Just not you.”

Leo grinned and shrugged, “Fair enough.”

* * *

The ice rink had always felt like a second home to Otabek. It was natural, really, since he spent such a large part of his life on one. His warm ups were almost meditative as he adjusted his centre of gravity atop the silver blades.

However, this one was becoming something of a sanctuary. High school was growing ridiculous, quickly. Why did he have his own fan club?! He couldn’t recall doing a single nice thing for these girls, apart from not screaming in their faces. Yet, that was seemingly only adding to his ‘bad boy biker’ image.

He was currently watching JJ demonstrate a triple Lutz. It was the easiest way to get the senior to shut up, really; give him the opportunity to show off. And, well, even though he wasn’t planning to attempt quads until he debuted in seniors, he still wanted to impress with a good jump.

If he wanted to be noticed, he needed to be more memorable than he was….

“Now you try!” called out JJ, approaching Otabek and pushing him off the wall of the rink. Otabek nodded and built up his speed around the rink.

He went through the motions in his head as he skated forward. Outside edge... one two, three, half, and…

He couldn’t quite land without a hand rebalancing on the ice. He cursed inwardly, ignoring JJ’s cheers of, “You’re improving!”

There was suddenly a foreboding noise coming from the entrance of the rink. Otabek’s eyes widened. Fangirls? Here?! They weren’t meant to be indoors!

JJ looked confused as well, “Did security slip?” Despite his usual bravado, he chose to skate to the centre of the ice, away from where a daring fan could grab him.

Leo moved closer to Otabek, placing a steady hand on his shoulder as the first girls burst in. Their coach looked ready to murder whoever oversaw security, yelling at everyone to leave immediately. No one was listening to her.

“JJ! Show us your quads!!”

“We want to see your art, Leo!!”

“Skate on me, Otabae!”

Otabek winced. His fans were mainly the juniors and they were easily the loudest, although JJ’s were larger in number. They couldn’t have all been into figure skating until recently, right? They’d probably only recently watched some of his older performances on YouTube.

And his coach was glaring at him. Right. Because he had total control over his fans’ actions, right?

JJ was held back by the arm. “No autographs. Don’t encourage them,” warned their coach. JJ nodded, flashing them an apologetic grin.

Leo whispered in Otabek’s ear, “They get through every now and again. Security usually takes care of it within ten minutes.” He gave a reassuring squeeze when no reply was given, “Aw, no need to look so pale! I’ll protect you!”

Otabek flushed red with anger. Had Leo just-?! He flinched as the squeals grew higher than ever.

Eventually, apparent reinforcements arrived and started leading everybody out of the area. Otabek allowed himself to relax once the few remaining girls were threatened with police action and finally escorted away.

“Altin! What was that?!”

Alarmed, he stared bewilderingly at his coach.

“I thought you at least wouldn’t be so vulgar! Did you hear what those children were saying?!”

Leo tried to cover for him, “Well, they’re juniors, ma’am. They can often take it too-”

“Don’t interrupt me, Iglesia. Altin, what have you done to discipline them?”

What? “I don’t understand, ma’am.”

There was a pause as their coach mulled it over, then a sigh. “I understand that the easiest thing to do is ignore them, Otabek, but that can easily be interpreted as acceptance. Is there a meeting or social media account that you can contact?”

Otabek couldn’t reply. He didn’t know where the fan club met, honestly…

“I’ll help him take care of it,” declared Leo, “He’s new to all this, you know? I can show the new kid the ropes and all that.”

Their coach nodded and moved on, returning to their training. Otabek was internally seething. Who was she to blame him for the actions of girls who should know better themselves?!

Leo winked at him, “Don’t worry so much, grumps. She’s just stressed out. No one thinks this is all your fault or anything.”

“She usually grills me out whenever this happens,” added JJ, “I mean, I post a few notes online, but fans will be fans. They go crazy. Mob mentality and all that shit.”

JJ stepped off the rink to check through his phone. Otabek went back to skating, planning to try a few more jumps before moving to spins, when there was a loud, boisterous laugh. “Aww, look at you two!”

Otabek and Leo glanced at each other uneasily, then skated up to the edge of the rink to see what JJ had seen. It was a photo taken of Leo whispering to Otabek, but there was a romantic looking filter used, along with the hashtags #otaleo and #leobek.

Leo muttered to himself in Spanish, but didn’t seem that upset. At least, not in comparison to how Otabek felt. This… he’d been hanging out with the older skaters for what, three weeks?! And it was already going this far?!

He couldn’t keep up. Fandoms were fucking exhausting.

He didn’t pay attention to JJ’s lewd smirks and Leo’s amused giggles for the remainder of the session. By the time everyone was ready to leave, he’d calmed down, although he wasn’t happy with the current situation. Did he really have to talk to his fans? Maybe he should’ve made those social media accounts while he was ahead. At least then, he could’ve avoided talking face to face with them.

Still, Otabek reasoned, at least he wasn’t paired up with JJ.

* * *

“Hey, dude, wait up!”

Leo had followed Otabek’s subtle expressions throughout the afternoon; every time their coach corrected one move or the other, he’d gritted his teeth and let down his shoulders. It was almost imperceptible, but it was there. Leo was sure the coach hadn’t noticed: the kid was way too stressed to even ace that triple axel he liked so much.

Perhaps a bit of company would help. And some actual mentoring, maybe? The boy seemed so alone in a country so far away from Kazakhstan that Leo felt a bit responsible for him. (Leo now knew where Otabek’s homeland was, he’d checked. More than once. He’d never been good at geography.) Someone should be there for him and for the hell developing all around him: he was too nice and too innocent for this school’s madness.

Otabek turned, pausing his walk for a moment to glare at Leo and step up the pace.

Leo had to run to him and grab him by his shoulders to make him stop, barely a few steps away from the bike.

He barely looked at him. He hissed. Leo was positive of it.

Leo’s instincts were telling him to back off and let the boy go. But he found the courage to stay.

“It was a shitstorm of a day, I know, but-”

“Look.” Otabek let out a long sigh. Almost painful. But at least he was talking. And didn’t look about to jump at to someone and rip their throat open.  
He probably could. The guy was cute and pissy and all, but he was still terrifying.

“...I just wanna go home, OK?”

Something sunk inside of Leo. He wanted to hug him, to tell him it was gonna be alright, it was a fleeting thing, it would blow over. He was gonna get over this.  
But he didn’t know how. And hugs were definitely off the table.

He remembered the way he picked himself up after an especially stressful day.

“Take me home. Stay with me for a bit.” He saw the younger boy about to protest and cut in, “It’ll be worth it. Please?”

Otabek turned his back to him, fidgeting. Without a word, he walked up to the bike and took his helmet out, getting ready to leave.

Well, there was not much more Leo could do, was it? Otabek just didn’t want people meddling in his stuff. On his back.

It was fair, Leo imagined. It was an awful day for everyone. Maybe tomorrow….

“So?”

Leo lifted his gaze to look at Otabek, already making the engine roar while offering the spare helmet to him.

“Are you coming or not?”

Leo hopped up in a second, grinning.

They stopped by the driveway of a two-storey house with a perfectly neat garden and a lady sitting quietly by the dining room window, watching some TV.  
Well, that’s what it looked like from outside. Leo knew better.

“Mamá, ya llegué!”[5](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn5) He gestured Otabek to leave his shoes by the door as he did the same and rushed to give his mother a kiss on the cheek. The lady looked up to see the quiet boy at her door and smiled widely.

“Good afternoon, my name is Lucía, I’m Leo’s mother. And you are?” Otabek looked at the offered hand warily and Leo had the urge to tell his mother that no, he doesn’t do handshakes. Or kisses. Or hugs.

Luckily, this time he did. “Otabek Altin. A classmate.” Leo felt a bit hurt, sure, but the guy was like that, right? Friend might be too big of a word for him to use so loosely. He guessed. He hoped.

“Otabek? Curious name. Leo, por qué no atiendes a tu visita? No te crié para que fueras tan irrespetuoso,”[6](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn6) she turned and changed the conversation in a second: as she always did. Otabek wasn’t so used to it, apparently, by the look on his face. “Me podrías haber dicho algo y preparaba comida para todos, ahora que voy a hacer esta noche? Ve, niño, que te ocupes de tu visita, ya pensaré qué hacer.”[7](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn7)

Lucía kept muttering Spanish phrases like bullets in rapid fire, something about, “disrespectful kids that can never text,” and, “they always have their cellphones but they’re never available for their mothers,” and so on. Leo rubbed the back of his neck in embarrassment, noticing how stiff his friend had become with the exchange.

“Sorry about that, let’s go up so she stops nagging me.” He joked and ran up to the steps up to the first door on the hallway. He invited the boy into a rather small room, rather well kept, an acoustic guitar hanging from one of the walls. Otabek sat on the desk chair while Leo took the bed.

“Y no cierres la puerta que me acuerdo perfectamente de lo que hacían con el último muchachito que trajiste a casa!”[8](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn8)

Leo winced upon hearing his mother yelling.

Otabek turned positively white. Shit.

“I’ll correct her in due time. Ok?”

“Do you bring a lot of guys home?” He shouldn’t. Oh, he shouldn’t. The guy just had a difficult day; he was supposed to be helping…

“Jealous?” He couldn’t help himself: pissing off Otabek was so much fun. Especially with that little offended grunt he made upon hearing the word, pouting and crossing his arms in front of him.

“I’m just kidding, OK? Relax a bit. No fangirls up here, I promise.” Leo put his hands on the boy’s shoulders to make him loosen up, failing miserably to do so, and pushed the chair a bit away from the desk. “You know what? Let’s make you an Instagram.”

Otabek crossed his arms again. “Why would I want that?”

“To put a leash on your girls, of course. Come, come.” Leo set up his computer as Otabek pushed the chair closer to look at what the older boy was doing. Before he could move away, Leo leaned onto the desk, a hand at each side of Otabek. “You have to fill in the form as you like, you think you can do it?”

He got a small nod in response, and watched as weird symbols started filling up the screen. He’d changed the language to Russian. Clever.

Then again, if Otabek was trying to piss him off somehow, it certainly wasn’t enough; not when he had the lead.

He heard footstep on the stairs, but then again, the house was constantly full of noises, so he kicked them out of his mind and looked down to call his friend. The minute Otabek looked up Leo planted a noisy kiss on his forehead, chuckling, and turned away.

He froze.

Lucía stood at the door, a cup on each hand. Leo turned to look at her. She spoke clearly, flatly, without giving any chance of discussion, leaving both cups on the desk. “Tu chico no se queda esta noche. Mándalo a su casa.”[9](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn9)

Shit. That meant trouble. But he still had something to do. He passed one of the cups to Otabek and waited until his mother had gone far enough from the staircase.  
“You were all over the place today.”

Otabek squinted at him. “I was harassed. Every minute of the day.” He leaned back into the chair to look at the ceiling. “This is way too much work, I don’t understand how you do it.”

Leo grinned and tried to sound as comforting as he could, even though he knew hell was gonna break loose the minute he got alone. “Instagram helps: they get less psychotic when they can reach you, even if they can’t send you messages. It’s silly but it works.” Otabek scoffed at the ceiling. Damn, this wasn’t going anywhere. “Look, what do you do to unwind?”

“Huh?”

“What do you do when you’re stressed out? Why were you in such a hurry to get home?”

Silence. Otabek locked eyes with him. He took his time, as if he was measuring Leo. At least, that’s how it felt, like he was being evaluated to check if he was worthy or not.  
“I call my sisters.” So, he was worthy after all; there was a hint of pride in the wide smile Leo was offering him.

“Well, why don’t you talk to me? I promise I won’t say a thing.” Otabek scowled at him but allowed him to keep talking.” The second you feel slightly uncomfortable at all, I’ll let you go to your home, and I’ll forget about all of it. Like poof; this never happened.” The boy didn’t move. “Please? I promise. I won’t tease you. Really.” He heard a resigned sigh and something light up inside of him.

“I haven’t been home in over three years. I haven’t been around anyone remotely...” Pause. “Friendly, I guess, in over three years. But at least I kept myself separated enough for these… things not to happen.” Leo could almost hear him gritting his teeth. He wanted to hug him so bad, he knew it would only make things worse.

“What about us?” He was expecting a take back, a scoff. A pat on the back. Not that.

“What about you?” Otabek practically spat the phrase out in disgust. He was tired, he was stressed, it was a rough day for all. He didn’t mean it. Leo needed to convince himself Otabek didn’t truly feel the hatred he could in his words.

“Look, man, I understand you’re overwhelmed, I mean, look at you!” Otabek raised an eyebrow, staring at the older boy excitedly gesturing with his hands and walking up and down the room while he spoke. “You’re amazing! I know I wouldn’t do it: get so far away from all you know being so young, and all alone, not even a coach you actually know with you, travelling around the world to look for your style… Man, that takes some GUTS!” Leo chuckled and kept ranting as if he was talking to himself. “And the things you do: you speak several languages perfectly, you ride a bike, you have this whole badass thing going on… And the way you kicked the skater’s ass, man, that was awesome!”

Leo stopped to get some air, and heard a snort and a slight chuckle from his guest. That was his cue: he was doing great. “Of course, you were gonna get a fan club, you’re amazing! And that triple axel of yours? Incredible. And all the hours on the ice, dude, you’re always THERE. I wish I had the strength you have.”

He stopped and plopped down against his mattress again, waiting for a response.

There was silence. There was always silence with him, but somehow Leo could feel when it got tense. And it wasn’t right now. Finally, it wasn’t.

“Watch it.”

His breath hitched for a second. Was he misreading the signs?

“You’ll end up on my fan club as well.” What? Did he…? Oh. Did Otabek just make joke?

He felt cackling laughter rising up and let it out, earning some pretty enraged scolding from his mother downstairs. He could hear Otabek laughing too. Finally.

“Should I start calling you Otabae?”

“Oh, fuck off.”

Leo stood at his doorstep, waving at the moving motorcycle; it was already dark and he had some homework to do, but this felt so much more important.

And it felt like he made some progress. The kid laughed. Really laughed; not that let’s-not-make-this-too-loud-so-people-won’t-look-at-me chuckle he always did at school. Really, properly laughed, pillow throwing and all.

Well, the pillow throwing might have been because of the teasing. But it was alright, wasn’t it? Otabek had been having fun too!

He went back in to face the implacable wrath of his mother: he’d have to explain that Otabek was not a date, just a friend. If he were dating Leo, Otabek wouldn’t have so many girls (and some guys as well) constantly flirting with him. Openly flirting with him. Unashamedly.

No, boys who were taken don’t get that kind of attention: even high schoolers know you shouldn’t hit on people who are taken. Well, most high schoolers.  
He’d have to calm his mother, then do his homework, then maybe pick up some dinner. It was gonna be a long night.

But it was worth it.

* * *

5\. [Mom, I’m home!][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref5)

6\. [Leo, why don’t you take care of your guest? I didn’t raise you to be so disrespectful.][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref6)

7\. [You could have said something and I’d have made dinner for everyone, what am I gonna do tonight? Go, boy, take care of your guest, I’ll figure out something.][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref7)

8\. [And don’t close the door that I remember perfectly what you were doing with the last boy you brought home!][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref8)

9\. [Your boy is not staying tonight. Send him home.][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref9)

* * *

Otabek woke up the next day not by choice, but because someone was screaming about… something... right next to his dorm room again. He groaned in frustration and tried to ignore them as best he could, hoping for the extra hour of sleep that he deserved. However, it was useless. He was fully awake.

He had a martial arts session that morning before class, followed by yoga. It was his preferred way of training his body and flexibility for figure skating. Unlike Leo and JJ, who were probably in their ballet class at that moment. God, Otabek hated ballet. If it wasn’t for, well, that one person in his memory, he would’ve liked to forget every humiliating class he’d been put through.

He thought back on the evening with Leo as he trained. Otabek had been in almost a daze as he’d driven back to the dorms. He hadn’t felt that relaxed around someone in a long time. Leo had an openness about him that Otabek felt he could trust.

Was Leo a friend? He was the closest thing Otabek had found since he moves to the States. People didn’t say such heartfelt compliments to others like that unless they were friends, right? Otabek wouldn’t know.

At the very least, he wouldn’t mind being invited around again. He wondered if that would even happen; Leo’s mother didn’t seem to trust him at all. Ugh, Otabek hated being in insecure positions like this. He’d always sought clear answers. Could he perform this jump or not? Had he studied enough to pass this exam or not?

He found Leo by his locker, before classes started. “Are we friends or not?”

“Eh?” Leo looked puzzled, “That’s the first thing you ask me?”

Otabek wasn’t sure what he was meant to have asked Leo, but the senior laughed before Otabek could reply. “Oh, you haven’t seen it yet, have you?”

“Seen what?”

“Nevermind, you’ll come across it eventually,” Leo winked and hurried on down to his class, “But yes, of course we’re friends, you dork!”

...Well, Otabek had gotten the answer he’d been looking for, at least. Although, he wasn’t happy with the handful of questions he’d been left with.

Leo hadn’t been lying when he’d assured that an online scolding would convince some of the fangirls to lay off Otabek. In fact, some of them were quick to tell off anyone who directed a sexual comment toward him, which Otabek did appreciate. However, his suspicions that his new ‘fans’ knew next to nothing about figure skating were distressingly on the mark.

“Could I be your pair skating partner one day? I mean, I’ve never skated before, but I learn quickly!”

“Does it get boring dancing to the same old ballet music every day?”

“Are you ever going to take up a proper sport later, like hockey?”

Please, could Otabek just have the smallest break? He just wanted to get on with his schoolwork and train for the next season.

He didn’t go back onto his Instagram until lunch. Truth be told, he’d forgotten there would even be updates until he saw Leo and JJ skimming through their phones from across the table. Leo had sent him a few direct messages yesterday just to explain how it worked, although there were new texts, sent at… 3AM?

What? “Leo, why were you-?” Otabek started to ask, but his voice drifted off as he begun to read what had been sent to him.

_heyyy, otabae <3_

_i have la mejor idea_

_you know what deberiamos hacer_

_you should be mi bae <333_

_podemos ser fake bfs y girls will leave us gay skaters bros en paz_

_i mean we’ll still be bros but only para nosotros :D_

_be my beku bae <3?_

_i am a weirdo wtf son las 3 i just finished mi shit_

_buenas noches beku bae <3_

...Otabek wasn’t sure he could describe what he was trying to send Leo with his facial expression, beyond, “What the fuck?!” However, it was strong enough to catch both his and JJ’s attention. There was a pregnant silence as Leo and Otabek stared each other, silently demanding the other to speak first.

“...What? What I miss?” asked JJ, his words muffled by a mouthful of food.

The break in silence did it for Leo. He started sniggering, only growing louder the more Otabek glared at him. By the time Otabek gave up trying to force Leo to quieten down again, the senior was in peals of laughter, tears building up in his eyes.

“No seriously, what the fuck did I-?!” JJ’s demand was cut short as Leo fell into his lap, having lost his balance due to his hysterics. Otabek tried his best to ignore what had become a thrash pile of limbs in front of him, as JJ tried to help Leo sit back up.

The request was creepy as hell, and really fucking stupid. Granted, he didn’t think Leo meant anything bad. If he’d wanted to take advantage of Otabek, he’d had plenty of chances to do so, right? But this... was just dumb.

Fake a relationship to keep fangirls away. Fucking hell.

Otabek ignored Leo’s weak attempts to call him back as he stormed off. If he had to stare at the stupid senior’s face any longer, he had a feeling he was going to punch it.

* * *

Leo swore that his throat was sore from screaming too much. Or laughing too much.

Or laughing a lot and then screaming a lot because he realized he probably shouldn’t have laughed that much.

He’d fucked up. Big time. He’d made so much progress with the grumpiest most silent kid in the school, well, probably in the fucking country and he’d laughed at it.

Not that it wasn’t funny. JJ would have laughed as well. Anyone would, come on.

But yes, OK, a bit much. He opened the Instagram app to see where he had written something so terrible… The idea was a bit extreme, he’d grant that, but it was good.

And poorly written. In two languages at the same time.

And. Well…. He had forgotten about that.

_Beku bae._

He felt the rising of a chuckle again. God, it was SO good. He had to appreciate the attraction of it. His fangirls would kill to give themselves credit for it.

They would shout it out through the halls.

OK, maybe that part wasn’t such a good idea. That was just a joke he’d made when half asleep, tired out of his wits after having been forced to listen to the talk in a volume certainly not safe for human hearing at ungodly hours of the night. And then being denied to touch anyone ever while he lived under his mother’s roof. As it hadn’t happened before.

But it wasn’t even the point! Leo had just been trying to help! And he was certainly not interested in someone who had the sense of humour of a military sergeant. With a rash in tight pants on an especially hot day, if he may add. He’d gotten scolded AND been left behind because he was trying to be nice. All in one day.

Well, fuck it!

Leo’s resolution to leave the boy alone was, in fact, getting weaker as the dance class went on. He’d asked himself several times how come Otabek was a skater, and a good one at that, yet didn’t take the ballet class. He’d never actually asked him. Now, he assumed, he couldn’t anymore.

Maybe Leo had been a bit too harsh on the boy. Otabek was all alone, and lost, and the guy he’d finally opened up to had laughed his lungs out at him on the school cafeteria. And that was enough to make the rumour factory spin.

Leo hadn’t thought of that.

He should text him. If he had the number, that is. Seeing it was not the case, he could DM him. If, by any chance Otabek hasn’t blocked him already.

Damn it, this mentor thing was hard.

He waited until the class was over to look for him. Leo knew Otabek got off earlier than he did on Thursdays because he didn’t go to ballet class, so Leo wouldn’t have to take his anger first handed. That was surely a good thing. Especially since he knew what he could do to people when he got pissed.

Not that it would make pissing him off any less fun, but still. Scary as fuck.

Leo walked through the halls, phone in hand, looking at the feed of his Instagram. Thumb hovering over the search bar.

He should message him. Of course he should. He should message him, and apologize, and say he’d been too sleepy, it was nonsense, forget about it, it was all gone.

And he would have. Of course. If it wasn’t because the first thing Leo saw when he looked up as he walked out the school front door was a particularly familiar Kazakh in a leather jacket leaning against his bike. With two helmets.

He didn’t own two helmets. He always gave Leo his.

Leo put his phone away and ran to him because, well, he really needed to apologize. But there was something he needed to do first.

“Didn’t your school day finish like two hours ago?” Leo asked.

Otabek shrugged and looked away. “I came to give you a ride home.”

Leo was sure he must have been looking like an idiot, mouth agape and eyes wide in disbelief.

“That’s what boyfriends do, isn’t it?”

Boyfriends.

That meant the crazy idea was still on game?

He wanted to laugh his heart out. He wanted to laugh until his stomach hurt. He didn’t. He couldn’t suppress the wide grin, though.

“Good. Let’s go, Beku Bae.”

“No. not that.”

Leo scoffed, cradling his helmet (was it his helmet now?) against his chest like a teddy. “But pet names are important!”

Otabek rolled his eyes and straddled the bike to start the engine. “Find another one.”

Leo perched behind him, giggling, and put his arms under Otabek’s jacket just to feel him stiffen at the contact. He didn’t mind messing with the driver, they were fake boyfriends now. And fake boyfriends do a lot of PDA.

PDA, as in, that thing Otabek hated, since he scowled pretty much every time anyone tried to touch him.

This was gonna be fun.

Leo felt the boy relax at the contact with the swift wind and put his head on the crook of his neck, breathing deeply. He heard some words muttered in between Otabek’s teeth that he couldn’t recognise. Not English, nor Spanish. Maybe Kazakh? Certainly nothing nice.

Then he noticed. Leo wrinkled his nose--he couldn’t date someone with his hair like that smelled that. Mostly because he’d be missing the opportunity to mock him for it.  
“Hey, Beku?” He heard a soft grunt from the boy. Beku; that one worked. “Your hair smells like a wet dog. You’re changing that shit hair gel you use. For me?”

“Hey amor.”[10](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn10) Huh? He was impressed the guy was actually answering. And sweetly. Almost purring.

He could be adorable if he wanted to.

“Si, cielo?”[11](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn11)

“Vete a la mierda.”[12](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#fn12)

This was definitely going to be interesting.

* * *

10\. [Love.][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref10)

11\. [Sweetheart.][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref11)

12\. [Fuck off.][↩](http://archiveofourown.org/works/9488540/chapters/21470168#ref12)


	2. Sightly Off Beat

Otabek had no idea what he was supposed to do when he returned to his dorm, after dropping Leo off. That had been the most awkward ride of his life. He didn’t like being touched or touching others, but he’d just about put up with it this time. Leo did have a point about them now playing the role of lovers.

He was skimming through Instagram properly for the first time since he’d downloaded the app. The only reason for it was that he’d found Yuri Plisetsky’s account and was going through some of the images. Otabek was still in awe over the fellow junior skater’s performance from the last season. He’d always been talented, but now, Otabek could see in his eyes that he was ready to take on Russia and the rest of the world. To perform a quad as a junior in competition, successfully… it had blown everyone away.

He probably didn’t even remember Otabek, not that he could be blamed for it. Still, Otabek knew that one day, he would try to talk to Yuri. He had to at least take a chance.

Should he mention something regarding the false relationship on Instagram now that he was online? Leo had posted a selfie on his account of the two of them, but he hadn’t tagged it with anything that clearly said they were in a relationship. Not that it stopped the fangirls making assumptions. They were making a lot of insights regarding why Leo was kissing Otabek’s cheek in the frame.

Taking a deep breath to prepare himself, Otabek reluctantly commented on the photo with a single heart emoji. That… would be enough, right?

Leo immediately sent thirty more romantic themed emojis via DM, followed by several faces laughing.

Why was Otabek doing this? Leo was having the time of his life making Otabek as uncomfortable as possible. Asshole.

Later in the evening, Leo dropped him a message.

_you just tell me when you want to break it off and its done ok? <3_

_but stick around and ill take you to prom mi amor :*_

Prom? Right, Senior Prom was in a couple of months. Otabek was perplexed, really. Leo would be okay with taking him to prom? Yet, he was also curious. His parents were always on the lookout for better resources and more experienced coaches. There was a good chance that by Otabek’s 18th birthday, he would be in a completely different country and never get to see an American prom. It may be worth tagging along with Leo, just to see what it was like.

This was probably going to be a disaster. Otabek wanted to see what would happen next.

 

They didn’t see each other at all the next morning. Otabek had been so caught up in his flexibility training that he’d had to run to his classes to get there on time. However, Leo was right at the door when he exited for lunch.

He tried to move in for a hug, but Otabek saw him coming and dodged out of the way. Leo chuckled and obliged for the most part, settling with his arm around Otabek’s shoulders.

“Have you told anyone yet, Beku bae?” He asked. He wasn’t going to let go of that fucking nickname, was he?

“No,” he replied gruffly.

“...Same.” Leo shrugged and thankfully had to let go of him to hold his tray, “I saw JJ come out behind the school with a girl, so he’ll probably be here in time for lunch.” Otabek rolled his eyes. Choosing between girls and food seemed to be the most difficult question that JJ had to regularly answer.

Today, JJ seemed to have chosen both, by having a girl feed him while sitting on his lap.

“Oh, they look good!” Leo grinned. Otabek responded by moving several seats away from him. He was not doing that. Fuck that.

Leo followed him down the table and leant in close, about to whisper something. However, he was distracted by a whiff of Otabek’s (perfectly fine, thank you) hair gel. “Oh, I almost forgot!”

He sprung back and rummaged through his bag, eventually picking out a small gift bag from the local cosmetic store. It was a considerably large bottle of hair gel, Otabek had seen the brand before and he knew it wasn’t cheap by any means.

Had Leo really-?

“This is for you, Cielo!” He declared, far too loudly for Otabek’s liking. Several people turned at the noise and Otabek knew, his face was heating up.

Even the girl attacking JJ’s neck stopped to glance at them. “Hein ? JJ, que se passe-t-il ?”13

“Sais pas,”14 he responded, “Hey, guys, the hell is happening? One day you’re getting all pissy, and now… And Grumps is fucking off again.”

Otabek ignored JJ’s remarks as he stormed away in embarrassment. There was being a good boyfriend, but then there was taking it too far. Acting like this was just going to start more rumours! Perhaps, Leo got off on that. It would explain why he’d yet to confirm anything with their fans.

The bottle of hair gel remained tightly in Otabek’s grasp.

 

* * *

 

13\. [Huh? JJ, what’s going on?]↩

14\. [Don’t know.]↩

 

 

* * *

“Again! Iglesia, focus!”

Bad. Rigid and sloppy and so awfully bad. Man, this was not his day.

And he tried his best today, to develop this odd relationship. In his own way, which Otabek clearly wasn't excited about. The guy couldn't take a joke.

Leo felt a hand on his shoulder as he entered the changing room.

“Dude, you know I trust you but it's getting weird enough…,” he turned to look at JJ towering over him with a concerned look on his face. It was highly concerning if even JJ had gotten the memo. “Is something going on between Grumpypants and you?”

It took all of Leo’s willpower to stop him from laughing. He pulled out his phone to have a reason to hide the smirk on his face. “Nah. He's just really shy.”

One new private message. He giggled.

“Hey, JJ, there is something…”

He sat right next to him, curious, and the hand on Leo's shoulder pressed harder, begging him to go on.

“We might be kind of dating?” Leo said in a chuckle, failing to hide the hilarity of it all. Could that guy even date? Or focus on anything but studying or skating or brooding through the hallways?

“Crisse, t’es sérieux ?!15 You sly little devil, good for you!” JJ started patting Leo's back so forcefully Leo was positive he’d get the mark of that hand imprinted on his skin forever. “Although, y’know…” The patting became a gentle squeeze on his shoulder.

“Yeah?”

“He doesn't look shy, he looks uncomfortable.”

The word sunk in on him. Uncomfortable. Leo just wanted to help, and maybe have a little fun while at it?

Otabek was uncomfortable, though. He flinched visibly every time Leo moved closer to him, walked away at every opportunity he got.…

JJ pulled away when he saw Leo zoning out. “I mean, I'm sure you make him happy and all that jazz, of course-”

“Nah, you're right.” Leo smiled to himself, hitting send on the text he was writing. “We should have a bit of a talk.”

 

They finished changing and headed out the door, JJ’s arm around Leo's shoulder and joking loudly.

Leo thought about telling JJ the truth, but then again, the point of the relationship was to be known by everyone, and what better way to let the biggest blabbermouth in the school to yell about it on the corridors?

He would tell him, of course. But not just now. He could just enjoy the joke for a bit longer.

“He's at least better than the last one, the one with the zzzzzing when he spoke?”

“Oi, that was really cute!”

“Sure, it was.”

The phone vibrated in his pocket. Leo took it out to check the incoming text. It couldn’t be anyone else than him: the guy who doesn’t even double text. Leo needed to figure out

how he was gonna take that giant stick out of his ass, seriously. Otabek needed to fucking relax for a bit.

_\- Thanks. For the present. But don’t do that ever again, please._

_\- No probs. Is it too weird? Wanna come home tonight and talk it out?_

_\- Fine. I’ll drive by tonight._

Leo got home early that day, decided to take a run instead of that dreaded piece of junk they dared call a bus. He told his mother he’d be waiting for someone and listened patiently to every warning. Again.

He told himself it would be worth it.

He took down the guitar and played the same songs over and over until nightfall.

 

* * *

 

15\. [Fuck, are you serious?!]↩

 

 

* * *

Otabek couldn’t say he resented Leo as he made his way to the Senior’s place. Angry at him, sure, but it was a stupid arrangement thought up at 3AM. The only reason Otabek had agreed to it was desperation. Could anyone have made it work?

However, he doubted that whatever Leo had to say would convince him to keep the false relationship going.

Leo’s mother didn’t seem worried about Otabek visiting, which eased his nerves a little. She was pleasant as she offered him food and drink, then sent him upstairs with, “Leo, tu chico esta aquí!”16

Otabek noticed that the guitar had been taken off the wall and was leaning against Leo’s bed, but didn’t ask. He sat on the office chair again while Leo sprawled out on his bed.

“You’re using the hair gel already!” Leo grinned and winked at him. “It looks better. Less greasy.”

Otabek squirmed and touched his hair self-consciously, but nodded. “It’s good quality.” A pause, then, “Thank you.”

“De nada,” Leo waved it off, thinking carefully about his next words. “But really, I wanted to say sorry.”

Otabek did a double take, surprised. Well, he hadn’t been expecting that. He thought he would have to find a way to convince Leo to stop between all his flirting and touching.

Leo continued, “I mean, I wasn’t really taking the whole thing seriously, you know? I guess I thought that you would get used to it eventually or something.” He looked away shamefully, “Ugh, why am I like this?! I shoulda just fucking talked to you, but no, I had to go off and be an idiot!”

Otabek rolled his eyes, but he relaxed considerably. At least Leo got it.

“Okay, let’s talk now!” Leo dragged himself out of his slump and directed his full attention towards Otabek. “How do you feel about hugging?”

“Uh...” Otabek felt like a deer in the headlights, underneath Leo’s intense gaze. “If I have some warning, it’s alright. I guess.”

“Okay, good. Kissing on the cheek?”

“No.”

“On the lips?”

“Never.”

Leo smirked, seeming to catch a difference between ‘no’ and ‘never.’ However, he didn’t comment further on it. “What about flirting and pet names?”

Otabek thought it through. “Preferably in Spanish.”

“Oh?” Leo cocked his head. “That’s fine, but why?”

“Less people will understand,” replied Otabek. Importantly, JJ wouldn’t understand. He took a breath, then softened his posture and face, smiling gently. ”y puedo mandarte a la mierda sin salirme del personaje, amor.”17

Leo gaped, surprised at the change in attitude, then laughed appreciatively. “You really are my little Spanish agent! I love it! Anything else while we’re at it?”

Otabek considered. “Back off when we’re in private,” he demanded, returning to his usual demeanour. “Including the texting.”

“Fair enough,” shrugged Leo, “Lovers on the streets, bros under the sheets. No problem.”

Oh, what the- Otabek doubted that asking Leo to, ‘Stop being a fucking weirdo,’ would work.

There was an awkward pause as neither of them were sure how to continue the conversation. Otabek had been certain that he would be out of the house by now, with the relationship called off. Now that Leo had managed to change his mind, it seemed wrong to end there.

Leo picked up his guitar, playing a few chords noncommittally. Otabek couldn’t recognise the song, but listening to Leo hum was a nice alternative to silence.

“Do you sing, Beku?” asked Leo after a while.

“Sometimes,” replied Otabek. “Only for my family, though. I’ve only ever sung in Russian and Kazakh.”

Leo hummed and smiled gently. “Would you like to learn something in Spanish?”

Otabek glanced at the open door uncomfortably. He wasn’t sure if he even knew Leo well enough to sing for him, let alone his mother. “Um, I don’t want to sing.”

Leo looked disappointed, so Otabek quickly added, “I will listen to you, though. If you want.”

“Aw, that’s cute of you,” Leo chuckled. “I was going to sing for you, anyway. I’m practising a piece for Senior Prom.”

The notes sounded out before Otabek could reply. It took a few goes before Leo could truly start, as he had trouble with some of the notes. Otabek remained patient, which Leo was clearly grateful for as he relaxed over time.

It was a love song, although Otabek expected that. What else would you sing at prom, after all? Leo didn’t look directly at Otabek as he sung the lyrics, possibly to make sure Otabek didn’t feel uncomfortable.

_“El que late dentro de nosotros dos…_18 How do you like it?” asked Leo, taking advantage of the instrumental section to speak up.

“It’s good. Upbeat. Happy,” replied Otabek, not really sure what kind of answer Leo was expecting.

“Hah, like me, right?” Leo flashed him a cheeky grin, although Otabek noticed that the strums were more assertive and confident. It matched the mood better. Otabek nodded and let Leo return to his singing.

Once he’d finished the song, he continued to play, playing with scales and chord structures. Otabek could tell that he wasn’t performing, but he didn’t mind it. He spoke up now and again when something sounded particularly good.

By the time Leo placed his guitar back down, Otabek was yawning. He wasn’t sure if it was late or if the music had lulled him to sleep.

Leo clapped his hands in front of Otabek’s face, startling him, “Come on, up and at ‘em! You need to stay alert out on the road!” he teased, helping Otabek out of the office chair. Otabek grumbled and pushed Leo off him as they walked downstairs together.

“You boys had fun?” asked Leo’s mother, “Stay for dinner, Otabek! There’s a plate for you!”

Otabek smiled politely, “Thank you, but I shouldn’t be on the road before sundown. I only got my licence a few months ago.”

“Oh, of course. Good boy, go home, don’t make your parents worry.” Lucía beckoned Leo over. “Leo, ayúdame a prepararle una vianda para el camino. Debe estar hambriento..”19

Otabek couldn’t complain that he didn’t need to cook tonight. Especially when Lucía’s cooking was much better than his own. Yet, he couldn’t help but feel like he was about to step into a ‘point of no return’ in regards to his fake relationship with Leo.

 

* * *

 

16\. [Leo, your boy is here!]↩

17\. [And I can flip you off with going out of character, my love.]↩

18\. [[Buscando la manera - Enanitos Verdes]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OCYvF2FCJME)↩

19\. [Leo, help me pack something for the road for him. He must be hungry.]↩

 

 

* * *

When Leo woke up the next morning, he somehow felt light-hearted, gleeful: he felt this was the beginning of a great day. It had to be after the incredibly fun night he’s had: Otabek loosening up, smiling at him, listening intently. Being lulled by Leo’s music.

Leo has always wanted more of an audience than his mother, and siblings when they still lived with him. More audience than people obligated to say he was good. And having his friend there (Yes, he’s sure about using that word now) who actually encouraged him instead of mocking him for messing up the chords here and there, as he could have, made it all easier. Playing, chatting around, watching Otabek lose all that hardness in his expression.

He remembered the guy he met just over a month ago: completely unreachable, all sharp edges and silence. He looked so different in his eyes now, so vulnerable, so open, he finally looked like any other high school junior. Sure, the silence was still there, but that was just him. There was no point changing that. It suited him just fine.

He walked to his locker at school and opened it absentmindedly, letting a carefully folded piece of paper fall; it must have been tucked in the gap of the locker door. He put it in his pocket and forgot all about it, getting ready for the class he was about to be late to.

 

“Leo, there you are!” a grinning JJ caught him in a playful headlock. “How is your petit loup20 today? He doesn’t seem as pissed off as yesterday.”

Leo tapped on the guy’s arm to make him release his hold and grinned at him, eyeing the flocks of girls behind them trying to get JJ’s attention. “He’s fine. I fixed my fuckup, I think.”

He was beaming, but that part wasn’t a lie. He did fix something he didn’t intend to ruin; he was happy. Very happy.

He noticed JJ was about to speak up again, and he knew him well enough to guess where he was going to take the conversation. He spoke first. “Let me tell you all about it! But let’s head to class first. You’re gonna get your ass handed to you if you are late again!”

 

Class was boring. JJ was bored and fiddling with his phone under the desk. Leo was about to follow his lead.

He felt something on his pocket next to his phone. A paper.

He took it out: there’s something on it. He carefully unfolded it letting the content fall onto his open book.

Guitar picks. Good ones too, acrylic, medium thickness, pointed. Perfect for the kind of sound he was going for. His Beku had a good musical ear, apparently. Nice to know.

There was also a bit of a scribbling in a neat, tight handwriting.

_Thanks for last night._

No signature, no unusual marks on the paper of any kind that might make him think of someone. Nothing.

Leo didn’t need any of those to know who sent it to him.

“Oh, you player! You turned your fuckup into a fuck up, huh? Congratulations!” Apparently, JJ didn’t either.

The scolding from the professor was loud and sharp: they both sat up on their chairs and pretended to be paying attention. Leo’s phone vibrated in his pocket. He looked subtly at JJ who was grinning like an idiot at him.

He just had to read it.

_\- They say make up sex is magical_

Shit. He was gonna be in so much trouble if JJ said anything like that to Otabek. And he did have a great time the night before, just playing for him, to let it all go to waste. Again.

He typed as quick as his fingers could handle.

_\- We didn’t, man, chill._

_We haven’t been at this for long_

He looked at his side to find his friend… disappointed? Really? He probably should just clarify all this mess before anything could go seriously wrong.

_\- Are you waiting until the wedding night ;)_

OK, that is a real call to action: if Leo didn’t stop it now, he knew chaos would ensue. Approximately at lunch. Around about the exact time when they’d meet Otabek. He had to stop it.

_\- Just don’t mention the note or anything, ok? Much less to him._

_You know. SHY GUY._

_Be polite for once, k dude?_

Leo looked up from his phone to see his friend smiling quietly at him. That had to be a good thing.

He hoped it would be.

 

* * *

 

20\. [Little wolf (term of endearment)]↩

 

 

* * *

Otabek hoped that the present would go well. The picks may not have been as expensive as the hair gel, but it was the thought that counted, right? Otabek hadn’t ever gotten into playing an instrument. Skating had taken up any time he had to spare for a hobby. He’d had to ask his sister what to look out for when picking out equipment for a guitar.

They needed to get the fake relationship out into the open, soon. It was useless as a method of avoiding fangirls if no one was under the impression that they were both taken. Otabek would have to rely on Leo to speak up first, however. He kept getting tongue-tied every time he tried to tell somebody.

When Leo found Otabek on his way to the cafeteria, he lifted his arm up, silently offering to place it over his shoulders. Otabek took a breath and nodded, greatly appreciating the gesture.

Perhaps, this wouldn’t turn out so bad, after all.

JJ’s filthy smirk when he came across them was suspicious, to say the least. He winked at Leo, as if sharing some inside joke between them. Well, of course JJ would be aware of the arrangement; he would’ve been the first person Leo told. Otabek was probably just reading too far into it.

If Leo noticed Otabek step a little closer to him under the gaze of jealous fangirls, he mercifully didn’t comment on it.

Saying that, both Leo and JJ were being uncharacteristically quiet, which was more unnerving than refreshing. What was going on? They didn’t seem upset with each other; in fact, JJ was completely ignoring the girls around them for once. He didn’t seem interested in leaving Leo’s and Otabek’s company.

Finally, just when Otabek was about to ask Leo for information, JJ spoke up, “Are you two going to say anything or what?!”

“We will,” replied Leo, giving JJ a pointed look, “Give us time, okay?”

JJ raised an eyebrow, “You weren’t wasting much time last night.”

“I told you that you got the wrong idea!” shouted Leo, directing attention towards them around the cafeteria.

“What’s going on?” Asked Otabek. This was getting annoying. What was he being left out of?!

“No me mires asi. Cómo te parece que se interpreta tu nota sin ningún contexto?”21 Muttered Leo, a small blush on his face.

“¿Perdón? ¿A qué te refieres?”22 Otabek leant closer to fill the space Leo had left by leaning away.

“Fuck it!” JJ sprung onto his feet, then climbed on the table, “If you two won’t say anything, I will!”

“JJ!” Otabek and Leo both yelled up at him. Shit! Even with his questions, whatever JJ was about to say wouldn’t be-

“May I have your attention, ladies and gentlemen!” Announced JJ, “I have something to tell you all!”

There was a tense pause as everyone gaped at the crazy fucker standing on the tables. JJ took in the attention, clearly enjoying every second, before continuing.

“My good friends here, Leo de la Iglesia and Otabek… um, Otabek, are totally dating! They are in love and they are fu-uh, really enjoying their time together! I propose a toast!” He lifted his half empty bottle of orange juice into the air, ignoring the way his ‘good friends’ looked ready to die on the spot.

There was an excited chatter as the gossip immediately started, although no one followed JJ’s lead of a toast. Otabek cringed at the open stares, but refused to hide behind Leo as instinct was telling him to. He closed his eyes and did his best to stay calm. _Бір, екі, үш...23_

It was leading up to this, right? It had to happen eventually. Perhaps it was even better that everyone was informed at the same time. There wouldn’t be that awkward period where those who’d heard rumours went to confirm the story.

Otabek wouldn’t run off this time. If nothing else, he didn’t want to get cornered alone.

He opened his eyes to see JJ sat back down with the smuggest grin on his face. His ego was likely on a high after that display. “What, Leo? You said not to mention that, so I didn’t.”

Otabek changed his mind. If whatever that was created that kind of glare on Leo’s face, he had no problem being left out of the loop.

However, Leo’s expression had nothing on his fangirls. It was hugely disconcerting to be faced with that level of jealousy and resentment, especially after so many weeks of seemingly unconditional adoration. Otabek glared right back at them, his usual reaction when placed under pressure.

JJ guffawed loudly. “Aw, the little sophomore’s jealous! Take good care of him, Leo.” Now that he’d had his moment, he was off, a girl clutched around his hip. Leo gave him the finger in reply, but squeezed Otabek’s shoulder with his other hand.

“You okay, babe?” he asked, loudly enough for the girls behind him to overhear. There was a mix of squeals and disappointed groans in response.

Otabek nodded and hesitantly allowed Leo to run his fingers through the back of his hair. Perhaps in a different situation, if would’ve been comforting, but in that moment, it was only directing even more attention to them.

Leo leant in to whisper in his ear, “Let’s get out of here. We still have some time before classes.”

 

* * *

 

21\. [Don’t look at me like that. How do you think your note sounds without any context?]↩

22\. [Excuse me? What do you mean?]↩

23\. [One, two, three...]↩

 

 

* * *

Leo encouraged Otabek to follow him around the school building to a little patch of green in between the tall buildings of the block, with a few benches here and there. It was supposed to be a park for kids to play, but the city had never gotten around to putting the playground equipment up. It ended up as a quiet cool place to let down after a long day; most neighbours didn’t even know it was open to public.

And it was quiet, alright; all he could hear where the birds singing: somehow the buildings shielded the place from the noises of the street. They sat side by side in one of the stone benches, silently; Leo realized how close Otabek was only when he felt their shoulders touching.

“You OK there?” Leo kept his gaze forward to avoid stepping on Otabek’s personal space. At least any more than JJ already had today. He felt fingers fidgeting ad intertwining together by his side and repressed the need to hold Otabek’s hands to quiet him down. “Can I do something?”

Pause. A long breath. “Say something.”

Leo could do that, at least.

“The song I’m doing is going good, but I think I should with another one, too? Like, a slow song maybe? I was thinking some sort of a blues, perhaps, but my voice is… I don’t know, I’m not too sure about it.” He kept on ranting trying hard not to move his arms too much and accidently hit Otabek. Leo could listen clearly the calm breathing of the guy besides him, all of him still and relaxed; he must have stopped moving his hands at some point.

Leo felt a sudden weight on his shoulder and didn’t need to look up to know what it was; Otabek had leaned his head onto him, breathing softly against the crook of his neck. He peeked just to see his eyes were closed: he did look a lot younger when he was comfortable.

“Are you still there?”

“Mh.” His voice was mellow. Leo wondered how he would sound when he sings.

“Should I keep talking?” He hovered a hand over Otabek’s shoulders just to be grabbed and pushed down. Otabek moved his hand away quickly after that, but didn’t pull away from the embrace.

Leo felt this as an invitation and kept on going, trying to take some information about the things Otabek liked. Sadly, the boy only answered in soft grunts or nods, so he couldn’t tell much, but he was determined to make him sing before the years ended. It was gonna happen.

He didn’t even notice when Otabek started speaking. “Podrías llegar a hacer muy feliz a alguien algún día.”24

It took him a while to process what he just heard. From a very sleepy, very oblivious grumpy boy with a fear of human contact. He smirked.

“Me estás queriendo insinuar algo? Soy todo oídos.”25 He wanted it to sound flirty, as part of the joke, but the giggling started sneaking through the words.

“No eres mi tipo.”26 Otabek’s voice sounded different, soft with a hint of sweetness to it, like a low purr clashing onto his collarbone. Would you look at that, he was flirting for the sake of a joke.

“Oh? Y cuál es tu tipo?”27 Leo couldn’t hide the obvious laughter at this point, but kept the facade to pull an overly dramatic expression, hand covering his mouth in horror and all.

“Me vas a dejar por JJ!”28

“What? No, fuck no!” Otabek bolted up and twisted his face in disgust. That was it: Leo cackled so hard he was holding his stomach and kicking away like a child. Otabek crossed his arms and looked at Leo expectantly until he looked like he could breathe again.

“You have to admit… He’s got the ass.” And started chuckling again.

“He IS an ass.” Otabek replied with the most serious face he could muster and leo falls in another laughing fit. This time he could hear the raising but still timid laughter accompanying his.

He got up as soon as the laughter subsided. “Look at that, you’re laughing in a public place! Maybe I do perform miracles, after all.” He flashed his cheeky grin, to get flicked on the forehead for his troubles.

“We should head to class.” Otabek looked almost as blank as always, but for the tiniest of smiles twitching his lips upwards.

Leo walked by his side offering a hand to him, although he expected him to keep moving forward pretending not to see it.

He didn’t. He took Leo’s invitation.

Leo still couldn’t let the opportunity for teasing go. “Your hand is all sweaty, do you like me that much-?” He got cut by a sudden crush on his hand that made him take a deep breath to avoid yelling at him. “What did I do?”

Otabek smiled and let go, a gleam in his eyes. “Love hurts.” He went on to his classroom leaving a really confused, grinning Leo behind.  
He was creating a monster.

 

“I heard through the grapevine that you’ve stolen my spot behind the school.”

The whisper in his ear made Leo almost jump out of his chair. He suddenly felt half of the class’ gaze fixated on him. He pulled JJ from behind him and sat him down forcefully.

“What? Who told you that?”

JJ propped his elbow on the desk to rest his head on his hand. That way he could hide a bit of the shit that was coming out of his mouth. “The girls, y’know. They’re everywhere.” He patted Leo’s shoulder as if he was congratulating him. “They said you were all touchy, sitting on the other’s lap and all.”

“We were just...!” Leo stopped when he realized the volume of his voices. This time, the whole class was staring. He continued in a whisper. “We were just sitting side by side, man.”

“Hey, I don’t judge.” The smirk on his face told otherwise, but Leo had to push down the conflict between punching him or running away. How was he gonna tell this to Otabek? How could he stop the boy from making a fuss about it? If JJ knew it was because it was already being shouted at through the hallways.

“But, y’know, out of curiosity…” JJ leaned in and downed the tone of his voice into a murmur. “If I were to enter my bet, which one of you two should I vote?”

Leo didn’t follow but something inside of him told him this was not gonna be good. “Huh?”

“Y’know…. Who tops?”

That was it. Leo stood up to defend himself, but his grasp of both English and Spanish had escaped his mind. He was stunned, freaked out; he didn’t think of the possibility of people asking about their sex life. Their completely non-existent sex life, let it be perfectly clear. And he might be able to handle it, but Otabek?

It was all kinds of wrong.

He was still paralyzed in his place when the professor arrived, letting her books fall heavily on the desk.

“Iglesia! Sit down or leave, but do not interrupt my class!”

He took this as his cue. He couldn’t beat the damn grin out of JJ’s face but he could at least run away and hide in some hall, browsing through his and Otabek’s fans social media pages.

It wasn’t even a shitty bet. They were making theories.

Leo tops because, of course, he’s a senior: he’s surely experienced. Which he is, but why should that mean anything?

Otabek tops because that guy is just too beefy to be pinned down by someone like Leo. But maybe he would be, just for fun?

Leo tops because Otabek seemed too shy, and was being escorted by him everywhere. Were they really talking about the same guy Leo knew?

Where the hell were these theories coming from?

Why was he even reading into them?

He needed to let Otabek know before anyone approached him, but he didn’t know how. His phone vibrated in his hand.

_\- désolé dude r we good?29_

_u were coming home tomorrow_

_r u still?_

Right. The Juniors would start that weekend and Leo had promised JJ to go to his house to watch them together months ago. He’d forgotten.

He didn’t feel like confronting this problem…. Surely it would vanish during the weekend anyway; but he should speak to Otabek at some point. At some point, soon.

He couldn’t find the courage to text him right now. Not about that.

So he did the next thing he could think of.

_Hey man, free tomorrow? It’s junior’s worlds_

_I’m going to JJs. wanna hang out before that?_

 

Leo begged for Otabek not to notice the rush on his words. They were always spending a lot of time together after all, but was it still weird to invite him somewhere out of the blue?

Leo was sure JJ wouldn’t mind. He hoped Otabek wouldn’t. JJ’s family could be a little… overbearing.

He breathed in and out deeply, hummed softly to himself. He decided he was gonna skip class for the rest of the day and just hit the ice instead. This shit storm would have to pass without him today.

 

* * *

 

24\. [You could make someone really happy some day.]↩

25\. [Are you trying to tell me something? I’m all ears.]↩

26\. [You’re not my type.]↩

27\. [Oh? And what’s your type?]↩

28\. [You’re leaving me for JJ!]↩

29\. [Sorry]↩

 

 

* * *

Otabek’s dorm was a tiny place. He’d sacrificed breathing room for the opportunity to sleep alone, which didn’t bother him personally. However, he could only hope that Leo wasn’t claustrophobic.

At least it was clean. Otabek was a tidy person in general, but he’d made sure everything was vacuumed and the air was fresh. He considered removing the various posters on his wall, but the ugly, dull white walls convinced him otherwise. He didn’t want to strip the room of any colour.

He wasn’t entirely sure what was going on; Leo’s explanation had been a hurried mess of Spanish and English grumbling. He’d picked up that Lucía had friends over and Leo was on his way here with lunch. After eating, the plan was to go to JJ’s house together and watch the junior competition.

It was the first time in years that he could watch the Junior Championships freely, without the pressure of knowing that he’d have to surpass all the competitors if he wanted to make a name for himself. Now that he’d decided to enter the Senior division this year, it may be a completely different experience.

His coach was still unsure about his decision, Otabek knew. There wasn’t any reason he couldn’t continue as a junior, by all accounts. Taking on Seniors at sixteen didn’t sound like it would go well for anybody, let alone someone who hadn’t practised ballet in years.

Otabek didn’t care. This was his career, not his coach’s. If she had a problem with it, he’d go and find someone else.

He decided to meet up with Leo at the entrance to the campus, once he’d received a text that Leo was almost there. He’d forgotten that, of course, Leo would flirt with him, seeing as most of the students on campus also attended their high school.

“Oh, how gentlemanly of you, Beku! Why yes, you may take me to your quarters!” Leo grabbed onto Otabek’s arm, pretending to swoon.

Otabek gazed back, unimpressed. “Voy a dejarte inconsciente aquí mismo si no te callas, amor”30 he replied, his voice much too soft for the words he was saying.

Leo pouted. “So harsh… and after I brought you food, as well.” Otabek rolled his eyes and didn’t reply, letting them into the room.

Leo’s eyes landed on the posters first. “Wow… you like the punk, eh?”

Otabek bristled, but didn’t give into the bait. Yuri wasn’t the only skater on his wall. Nikiforov was up there too, along with some of the old legends. Yuri only stood out because he was younger.

“Have you ever tried to talk to him?” asked Leo. “I did once, he’s… something else, for sure. Talented, but his attitude… geez.”

“He’s young and above everyone else, of course he’s like that,” Otabek quickly pointed out.

Even as he spoke, he could tell it was the wrong move. Leo’s face lit up and he grinned knowingly at Otabek. “Ohh, I see how it is…!” He leant in closer and Otabek felt his face burning. Shit. “How long has it been, babe?”

“Uh…” Just say something, anything. “I first met him three years ago. At a summer camp.”

Leo blinked, then his smile grew more genuine, “Aw, you two have history! So cute! Tell me everything.”

“What? No.” How was it Leo’s business in any way?

Even if it had been, it wasn’t as if there was anything to say.

“Oh, it’s personal? Private? Very close to your heart?” Leo was stepping closer and closer, Otabek felt trapped between his posters and the older boy-

He shoved Leo away, causing him to lose his balance and fall onto Otabek’s bed. Leo quickly sat up and seemed ready to argue, but Otabek dropped one of the servings into his lap. He was done talking. Now they were going to eat, then leave.

 

JJ’s house was, in a word, massive. There seemed to be space everywhere. The furniture and decoration clung to the edges, with massive gaps in the centre that one could easily run around him. Leo explained that JJ and his younger siblings often jumped around all over the place, so everything was at risk of being knocked over. Still, it was a huge contrast to the stuffy, cramped room Otabek had grown used to.

There were posters, paintings and photos of the Leroys everywhere. In every room, JJ or someone who resembled JJ was looking at them. They all had that same false grin, too. It was disconcerting.

The medal and trophy cabinets were some of the gaudiest things Otabek had ever seen. He saw dates going as far back as the 80s. A family of skaters. No wonder JJ had so many resources compared to Otabek.

He hadn’t been listening to JJ’s mother for some time, now. She was the type of person to talk a lot without really saying anything. That manner annoyed Otabek to no end; Leo could deal with her. It was his idea for both to come here, after all.

“JJ! Ils sont où, tes habits ?!”31 demanded his mother. JJ had just sauntered out in his bathrobe, because of course, he would forget to shower till the last minute.

“Relax, maman, they’re my friends. Hey, guys!” Otabek flinched at the loud echo JJ’s voice carried. “Eh, when’s everyone coming back? We need to set up the living room!”

“The elementary class are watching the competition together, remember?” said JJ’s mom, “It’s only us in the house today. And I need to garden. You boys go upstairs.”

She rattled off a little more in French, leaving Leo and Otabek to stand and wait awkwardly. Eventually, JJ ran off to grab something to wear and they all sat in his room.

He had a massive wall TV for his own and a couch. Naturally.

“You guys sit together on that end. I don’t mind if you cuddle up a bit. Just don’t dry hump or anything like that.” JJ winked, motioning for them to take a seat.

Otabek narrowed his eyes, confused. Wasn’t JJ aware-?

JJ was not aware that the relationship was fake. Leo hadn’t told him.

That was just ridiculous. Otabek wasn’t going to act like a romantic sap all afternoon. But if he left now, he would miss some of the performances before he got home…

“Leo, dile,”32 ordered Otabek.

Leo did a double take, then sighed as Otabek backed away from him. He wasn’t getting a choice, here.

“Um, JJ, about that…” he started awkwardly.

“Huh?” JJ paused fiddling with the TV to turn to them.

“I kinda never found the right moment to tell you, but… the relationship… it’s kinda not a thing.”

JJ took a moment to try and comprehend what he was being told. “...Not a thing?”

“You know how Otabek was having huge problems dealing with fangirls?”

“Yeah?”

“And how a lot of girls tend to back off when their idol is in a relationship?”

“Dude….” JJ’s mouth was agape.

“...And how I sometimes come up with some really stupid ideas? Especially early in the morning?”

“Dude, what the fuck?” JJ was speaking quieter than usual. “So you two are… just faking this shit? So girls leave you alone?”

Otabek and Leo looked at each other and nodded, then JJ shook his head, “You two are idiots. You think they’ll leave you alone? They’ll want proof, for fuck’s sake.”

“Huh? No-one was asking for proof when you got serious with… what’s her name, Emma?”

“Yeah, but you remember what it was like with your boy toy.” JJ started laughing, finally over his shock, “Fuck me, you two better be ready to kiss if you want this shit to work!”

“Yeah, but of course people wanted to see him kiss! He was really hot!”

_“Excuse me?!”_

“Lo siento, Beku.”33

Leo and Otabek stared at each other, daring the other to comment. Otabek knew, kissing was off limits. There were plenty of options they could try before them, including simply ‘breaking up.’ Just because JJ had the most experience with fans, didn’t mean he had to always be right.

Hopefully.

“Ah, have your lover’s quarrel later, let’s watch!” JJ jumped onto the couch and grabbed his bowl of popcorn as the livestream began.

Leo sat down and Otabek took his place on the other side of JJ, feeling rather bitter at this point. Leo smirked at his antics, but Otabek could ignore him by focusing on the TV screen.

He should’ve expected JJ to make comments during each performance. The alternative would be that JJ shut up for once, which Otabek was sure would probably kill the guy. And yet…

“No, no, kid, there’s no style to that! You gotta… you gotta feel the jump! You gotta make it your thing!”

What the fuck did JJ mean by ‘style’ and why was he still talking?

It was different watching the competitors as a spectator this time. He recognised a few of the faces, although he’d never talked to them, as far as he could recall.

Yuri was one of the last competitors to perform his short program. Otabek had already seen the costume on him throughout the season, but it still struck him every time it appeared. The shock of his dark blue waistcoat complemented his blond hair, while also highlighting his lean frame.

He was still so small, but his eyes were bold, confident and fearless. He knew he deserved to skate on that ice and have the world watch him do so. He would make sure they never looked away.

Otabek hadn’t looked away for three and a half years now.

JJ’s eyes lit up. “Hey, did you see that kid’s quad from a few months back? That was badass! He was what, thirteen?!”

Otabek glared at JJ. “That was dangerous. He shouldn’t have done that at his age.”

JJ waved him off, “I’m sure it was fine. He looked steady performing it.”

“Look at his frame, he could easily have broken something-”

“You’re a little on the short side too, my dear Sophomore.” JJ ruffled Otabek’s hair until his hand was slapped away. “But you’re ready to take on the big boys now, aren’t ya?”

“JJ…” warned Leo.

“But anyway, this kid. Plisetsky. He’s something else, to be sure. Can’t wait to face him off in Seniors!” He puffed his chest up. “Defeating the Russian prodigies, that’s JJ style!”

“Okay, okay, JJ, we get it-”

Before Otabek was even aware that he’d risen, Leo had jumped onto him and was pushing him back down. Shit. His hands were curled tightly into fists. He’d honestly been about to punch JJ.

“Cálmate, idiota! Cómo le piensas hablar a tu precioso ruso si te descalifican?!"34 Whispered Leo. His eyes were narrowed; it was the angriest Otabek had ever seen him.

Otabek took a few breaths and nodded, sitting back down. Leo relaxed in turn and sat next to him, although it wasn’t teasing like before.

Shit. Otabek had missed most of Yuri’s program. He watched the junior’s final triple toe loop and combination spin with a small pout. Yes, he’d seen this same routine so many times, he could probably replicate it from memory. It was still a waste of an afternoon to miss it.

JJ quickly got over the drama and was back to his inane remarks. He probably hadn’t even noticed how close he was to a fight. Even after the show had ended, he was still talking about the various skaters. Otabek had to admit, JJ had a good memory. If only he could pick up on more aspects of life beyond skating.

“Are you guys coming tomorrow to watch the free skate?” asked JJ.

“Ah, sorry, I’m meeting my sister tomorrow,” said Leo, shrugging apologetically. “Can’t make it, man.”

JJ’s shoulders sagged, but he didn’t argue. He also didn’t invite Otabek to come over alone, which Otabek was grateful for, really. Even if they could get along most of the time, interactions between them were hopelessly awkward without Leo around.

He dropped Leo off first, since he lived considerably far from JJ. He couldn’t let go of the ache in his chest, which Leo seemed to notice.

“Hey, Otabek,” he said once they were outside his house. “I’m sorry for making fun of your crush. I didn’t realise it was that deep.”

Otabek opened his mouth to argue that no, it wasn’t- But he could see that Leo was serious, so he nodded silently instead. He didn’t want to talk about it. He hated being reminded of just how much of a coward he was. He couldn’t even look at Yuri.

“It’s fine,” he eventually replied. “I don’t want to talk about it.”

“You don’t have to.” Leo smiled and opened his arms out, offering a hug. Otabek didn’t take it, but he smiled back.

Leo shook his head fondly and held out his hand, which Otabek did shake. “You’re so weird. It’s cute. See you Monday!” With that, he walked past the gate and indoors.

 

* * *

 

30\. [l knock you out right here if you don’t shut up, sweetheart.]↩

31\. [Where are your clothes?!]↩

32\. [Leo, tell him.]↩

33\. [Sorry, Beku]↩

34\. [Calm down, you idiot! How are you going to talk to your precious Yuri if you’re banned from the sport?!]↩

 

 

* * *

Leo walked silently to Otabek and poked his shoulder at the exact time he closed the locker door, making the guy’s heart almost jump out of his chest. Otabek was about to defend himself when he realized who it was. Leo chuckled and silently thanked god, they were good enough friends that his face wouldn’t be punched in for a silly trick.

He stepped forward, checking that Otabek was comfortable with the proximity, and leaned in to whisper in his ear. “Ganó el oro.”35

He could hear the girls gasping and giggling around them: he had made Otabek smile shyly, dip his head down and bite his lip to just barely stop the grinning. That was one expression he never did in public.

“I know.”

It was funny, really. Leo had tried every single approach he could think of to make Otabek smile so sincerely. And some had worked, sure, but it demanded a stupid amount of effort and stopping himself from saying something he shouldn’t, which was virtually impossible at this point. Especially since he found joy in pissing the guy off. The pouting was just too adorable.

But he’d just found the actual secret weapon: mention a certain petit Russian’s name and Otabek’s eyes would light up. For better or for worse.

The thing is, Leo found out about it the worst possible way: he took the teasing a bit far. So he still felt like he needed to apologize somehow.

Even though Otabek was currently looking straight at him, leaning against his locker, a little smirk dancing on his lips. He did look alright; much better than back at JJ’s.

He didn’t look like he was about to rip someone’s throat open with his teeth anymore. Not only that, he was surprisingly comfortable for his usual self. He was happy.

A guy he met three years ago reached gold and he was suddenly beaming. Leo wanted to laugh, to scream at him to go meet him, no matter the shitty temper or the constant tantrums of Yuri Plisetsky. Someone who smiled like that after you won a medal was someone worth keeping by your side.

Leo tried to avoid all comment on the matter. “Did I really make you so happy just now?” He failed. Again.

Otabek’s face twisted in his usual scowl and the spell was broken. Well, it was good while it lasted.

“Wanna come home tonight to watch the free skate? It’s already uploaded everywhere.” Leo put his hand right next to Otabek’s head against the locker, just to see his reaction. JJ said they’d have to kiss at some point. He knew it wasn’t gonna be now, or today, but he needed to test the waters just in case.

Otabek flinched, making the metal behind him clink at the sudden contact. Back to square one it is, then. Leo expected a subtle rejection in English. A hurtful comment in Spanish. Not the long silence between them.

Not Otabek’s final answer. “Sure. Vamos después de la práctica?”36

It took a few second for Leo to process it. Otabek wasn’t pissed at him. Sure, he was still with his back against the lockers (as if Leo would ever dare hurt him), but he wasn’t backing up.

They were still good, despite their Saturday evening. Leo let out a long breath he didn’t know he was holding. He backed away, ready to go to class, and clicked his tongue. “Of course, cielo, it’s a date!”. He ran off to his classroom before Otabek could take his words back.

 

Class was, as usual, tedious, but he was still happy he had made Otabek smile despite everything that had happened the last time they saw each other. He could understand the frustration and all, but throwing your career away because of a loudmouthed idiot? JJ was nice but everyone knew he talked a lot; everyone zoned out eventually.

Yet, Yuri’s name acted like a magnet to Otabek, like a wire holding back into reality. What other explanation could it be? He’s had ignored JJ before. Most of the time. Ignoring people he didn’t feel like talking to was kinda his thing, apart from scowling and remain in complete silence for hours, probably. Almost punching and starting fights was not.

That had been the first time Leo felt really angry at Otabek. But for some reason he felt the need to protect him; from others and from himself. He had more passion in him than it seemed, and that is an explosive force. It could push him forward or consume him.

He felt fingers brushing delicately his shoulder and shrugged, looking questioningly at the girl who sat behind him, leaning onto her desk to touch him.

“I heard you’re gonna have a little alone time with him tonight.” She licked her lips seductively, yet he just kept staring, unsure of what to say. “You know, the biker cutie you’re dating? I wouldn’t have asked like that.”

The professor was correcting essays and wasn’t even paying attention to the class; JJ was way too far off and with one girl on his lap and another one sitting on his desk. He seemed to have his hands full.

Leo would have to fix this on his own. “Oh? How would you?”

“Well,” she walks around the desk between them to lean on Leo’s, showing as much cleavage as possible, “If he was mine, I’d prove it every second.” she bit her lip and let it go slowly. “I would kiss him in every chance I get.” Pause, she looked up playing innocent, “mostly on the lips, I guess. We are in an educational institution, after all.”

A thousand thoughts passed through Leo’s mind. The loudest: Otabek would be so ashamed if he’d have heard. Luckily, he didn’t. And he wasn’t going to.

“Listen… Lisa, was it?” Of course it was, she has been in his fanbase for three years and sharing a class since at least last year. He knew exactly who she was. “What makes you think I’d be OK with you telling me the things you’d do to MY boyfriend?” He made obvious emphasis at the end of the sentence; obvious enough JJ turned his head to watch too.

“Well, we’re wondering… you’ve never kissed.” she looked back for support from the other classmates. The ones who were interested in this sort of gossip clearly, and he knew them all by heart: all fangirls of him.

“What makes you think we haven’t?”

The fangirls whispered something and Lisa snapped again, “Not at school, you haven’t.”

“So? We might not be too open to PDA.”

The girl snorted. “Puh-lease. You were all over your ex, you were practically fucking in the bathroom!” At this, the professor glared at them and the girls shuffled to their seats silently.

Leo needed to end this, and now. It was getting ridiculous and someone was gonna get hurt. And he was sure who would be the first. He needed to finish this before it started.

“Lisa, don’t make me have to go after you, it won’t be pretty.” He keeps looking forward, knowing she can hear him perfectly fine.

“Are you gonna hit me, bad boy? That’s low of you.”

“Think that’s the only thing I can do? I have a legion of girls that would believe anything I’d say. About you, too. This is your senior year,” he turned halfway to look at her in the eye and drop the final words with a smile, “Don’t force me to make it hell for you.”

He turned back, listening to her cursing between her teeth. She wouldn’t dare to speak up, at least for now. Prom could be trouble, but then again, maybe by then this whole charade won’t be important anymore.

He just hoped the whole kiss thing would be delayed for at least a bit longer. Otabek was calm, for once: Leo wanted to let him enjoy the peace for as long as possible.

 

* * *

 

35\. [He won gold.]↩

36\. [Let’s go after training?]↩

 

 

* * *

Otabek had noticed that lunch, at the very least, was much quieter than usual. He’d tried asking Leo about it, but his answer was that JJ had been off somewhere else for most of the time, so Otabek wasn’t going to get any decent responses from him. He supposed he shouldn’t complain, really.

He’d gotten a few questions about his relationship, but his junior classmates seemed more interested in the domestic aspect, such as cuddling and playing with each other’s hair. Part of that may have been the glare he sent any girl who tried to push her boundaries too far.

If the smile on his face came from imagining Yuri in the situations the girls mentioned, that was Otabek’s business alone.

At this point, it was natural to accept Leo’s invitation home once it was offered. It wasn’t as if he had much to do once he returned to his dorm. He didn’t have the space to train, so he was stuck reading or occasionally going through Instagram.

He didn’t follow many people. His sisters, Yuri, Leo and JJ was more than enough for him. He had a few followers, although it didn’t mean much since he’d only posted one photo since he’d made the account. It was enough to get a DM, however.

_Yo, Katie’s leaving on wed. Party tonight, bring your bf if u want ;)_

...They couldn’t be serious. “It’s _Monday,”_ remarked Otabek.

Leo paused from his task of setting up his desk for studying to raise an eyebrow. “Yes, it is?”

“These assholes want to party tonight.” Otabek wasn’t even sure who Katie was. Why didn’t she say she was leaving sooner? At least then, they could have celebrated on the weekend.

Otabek was fucked. There was no way he was sleeping tonight.

Leo glanced over his shoulder to read the message, then patted his arm sympathetically. “Good luck, Beku bae.”

“Fuck off.”

Leo grinned and swivelled Otabek’s chair for him, directing him towards the desk. Studying together was a decent distraction, at least. As much of a goof that Leo was, he was undeniably clever. He didn’t have to spend much time revising for himself, so he used the rest of the time to tell Otabek stories about what happened in his classes, when he was a sophomore.

Stories such as the time when someone asked JJ to demonstrate how a skating boot was worn, just to steal his shoe. JJ, in his haste to retrieve it, forgot that skating on carpet floor wasn’t possible and ended up flat on his face. Both his shoes and his boots ended up being confiscated by the teacher to keep him in his seat.

Otabek wasn’t sure if he’d spent more time laughing or studying, but it felt far too soon before Leo’s mother called out, “Boys! Come and have dinner!”

Leo seemed to agree. “She usually cooks about an hour later,” he told Otabek.

As it turned out, she was insistent that Otabek eat here tonight. “It should be light out after you finish. Sit down, eat!”

Lucía’s food was even better when eaten hot. Otabek was sure to tell her, which led to a long scolding about how ungrateful Leo was in comparison. She didn’t seem aware that Otabek could understand her, although Otabek wasn’t sure how to let her know without coming across as awkward.

“So, Otabek,” she directed her attention towards her guest, “How are your studies? Is Leo being helpful? He’s very smart. I hope he’s not being a brat about it.”

“He is,” replied Otabek, “They’re going well.”

“Good! Make sure you learn a lot now, next year will be much easier on you if you do.” She jerked her head towards Leo. “He can tell you all about that.”

Leo hummed in agreement between a mouthful of food.

“And make sure you sleep tonight too, boy. That’s how you will remember everything you’ve learnt.”

Leo scoffed, “Yeah, Otabek.” Otabek resisted the urge to throw a piece of food at him, settling for a dirty look.

Lucia picked up on something immediately. “What? What’s happening?”

“It’s nothing… Just something at my dorm,” replied Otabek.

Lucia looked surprised, “Eh? You live in a dorm? Where is your family?”

“In Kazakhstan.”

“Oh, child, you’re alone?” Lucía gave him a sympathetic smile. “You didn’t tell me, I was going to invite your family over. But you are welcome here anytime, dear.” Otabek was a little surprised, but he made sure to smile and nod gratefully.

Leo snickered, “Changed your mind about him, mamá?”

“Si tú te tomas esta relación en serio, entonce yo también lo haré.”37 snapped Lucía. Otabek choked on his food at the same time that Leo turned bright red. Of course, she would’ve heard Leo mention their ‘relationship’ at least once. He’d been loud enough.

“Uh, gracias, mamá”

“El chico entiende español??”38 Lucía asked Leo, although her gaze was directed at Otabek. Both of the boys cringed and nodded. Shit, they should’ve said something sooner…  
Lucía finally softened and she laughed lightly. “I didn’t give Leo enough credit. You are a fine man, Otabek.” She patted his hand softly before returning to her food.

 

Otabek wasn’t looking forward to leaving. Leo had checked through Facebook and the party was just about getting started. By the time Otabek returned, the music would be on full blast, he was sure.

Would they even let him back into his dorm in peace? Being on the international stage, he was the closest thing to a celebrity in the dorm. They may want him around just for the recognition…

“Gracias por su hospitalidad, Lucía,”39 he said, with a small smile. Lucía cooed and gushed about how good his Spanish was, kissing him on the cheek as a goodbye.

“Get some ear plugs on your way home!” called out Leo from the staircase.

Otabek gave him his best ‘if your mother wasn’t here I’d be flipping you off right now,’ look.

“What? I’m serious!”

“Why? I something wrong?” asked Lucía.

“No,” said Otabek, “It’s just a dorm party. Someone is leaving this week. It’s really annoying.”

Leo wasn’t helping Otabek’s mood. A video had been posted on Facebook, with music so loud that the speakers were buzzing more than anything.

Lucía also listened to the music, then took Otabek’s arm. “Then stay here tonight.”

Otabek’s mouth fell open. “Huh? No, it’s-”

“We have a spare toothbrush somewhere, I’m sure. Leo won’t mind giving you some spare pyjamas.” She glanced up at her son, who saluted and ran up to find something. “It’s not problem, dear. A growing boy needs good sleep.”

Otabek stuttered a little, not sure how to react to such open kindness. He’d never been close enough with someone to even consider staying the night.

“Gracias,” he eventually came up with.

Lucia beamed. “Go on up, Leo will show you where to sleep. We have an air mattress, if you boys need separate beds.”

_If_. Right. She approved of them dating, now.

Leo ended up taking the air mattress, for Otabek’s sake. “You really haven’t stayed the night somewhere? Don’t look so awkward, dude. My mom will kill me if she thinks I’m making you uncomfortable.”

Otabek buried his head into the pillow. “Shut up. Goodnight.”

Leo chuckled and ruffled Otabek’s hair, then went to turn off the light once he was batted away. “Buenas noches, Beku.”

 

* * *

 

37\. [If you’re taking this relationship seriously, then I will, too.]↩

38\. [Does he understand Spanish??]↩

39\. [Thank you for having me, Lucía.]↩

 

 

* * *

They walked into school the next morning, joking around in both languages, shoulder to shoulder. Otabek was hardly smiling and only let out a chuckle every now and then, but then again, that was his way of laughing in public, so it still counted as a victory in Leo’s eyes. Otabek walked Leo to his locker, closer than his own, to find JJ waiting for them. And of course, he just had to comment.

“Oh, did les deux tourtereaux40 spend the night together? Grumps here looks well rested for a change. You must have been-” JJ’s monologue got interrupted by a harsh kick to the shin and a deadly glare. He got up from where he was leaning against the lockers to take some distance and waited for Leo to go to class.

Leo just zoned off the rest of JJ’s soliloquy, focusing on Otabek: “So? Was it too terrible last night?” The guy pouted a little and looked down, trying to find some words. Some words of rejection, Leo was certain, but he was sure he wouldn’t give him the chance. “C’mon, my mother adored you, and you didn’t look so terribly awkward yourself.”

“So terribly awkward? That’s how I look?” Otabek raised an eyebrow and Leo could have sworn that was the faintest trace of a smirk in his friend’s lips.

“Well… I’m just saying that the giant stick up your ass isn’t showing.” Leo earned a flick to his forehead for that one, but it didn’t stop him from giggling like a little child, holding on to his locker door as if he was about to fall if he didn’t. “Really, man, did you sleep well?”

Otabek scoffed and gave in. “Fine… Better than around thin walls and college pricks, for sure.”

“Then come again tonight?” Leo practically pleaded, puppy eyed. It was an approach he never tried and he was honestly curious if it would work. There was nothing wrong in experimenting, after all, was it? “You can go back to your dorm to pick up whatever you need and come home.”

They stared at each other for what it felt like hours, wills battling to overcome each other.

“Mh.” Otabek grunted and turned to head to class. “Class is about to start”

“So? Are you coming tonight?” Leo practically shouted to make his friend turn slightly and roll his eyes at him, muttering a, “Yeah,” and walking on.

“So…. Is he _coming_ tonight?” JJ practically whispered on Leo’s ear, making him jump almost three feet in the air.

“Hey!” He tried to be serious, although he’d never good at that. “It’s not polite to ask.”

They headed to class together.

 

Leo was so focused at home after class, trying to perfect his playlist for Senior Prom, he didn’t even notice when his mother ushered a shy looking Otabek up to his room. He didn’t bother to lift his gaze off the guitar.

“We’re going classic style instead of terribly awkward, huh?” He gave the joke a moment to sink in and heard the simultaneous drop of a bag on the floor and the guy’s body on the desk chair before the kick landed on his leg. “Hey! Good evening to you too.” He chuckled, letting his guitar rest against the bed.

“You mother was just telling me how _adorable_ we look together.” Otabek rolled the word out of his mouth almost in disgust. He could be painfully clear about his thoughts when he wanted to.

“And we do! You’re cute as hell,” Leo teased, leaning close to ruffle Otabek’s hair until his hand got slapped away.

“You’re not.”

Well, that was hurtful. Leo pouted for a second, then started cackling. “Well, not everyone can compete with the Russian beauty-” He felt the icy stare on him and stood up to let his hands rest on the back on Otabek’s chair, arms fully straight to maintain some distance between them. “He’s pretty, I’ll give you that.”

He turned to look for some clothes in his closet and almost missed the subtle chuckle behind him. He looked at his friend again, questioningly.

“Pretty?” Now, that was an actual smirk, Leo was sure of it.

“Well, unlike some,” he paused to look straight at Otabek, who was searching for something in his backpack, “I know the risks of petting wildcats.” He waited for a scoff, a threat, a kick. Something.

Otabek smiled. “I’m not so easily frightened.” So, that was it, huh? He was going forward with his crush? Leo couldn’t help but feeling all warm and fuzzy. Like he used to when he landed his jumps neatly for the first time.

Was it pride?

He decided he had to make a move; he aimed himself into Otabek’s lap, arms wide, throwing out a high pitched, “My hero!” in the process. He got pushed onto the bed, of course, giggling and kicking away.

He promptly got back to his feet to head to the bathroom. “Hey dude, I’m taking a shower, be back in a bit, ok?” Otabek only nodded at his direction as a response, while setting up his laptop for… something. Leo didn’t ask.

 

So, yeah, Leo was a growing boy, maybe he did spend a lot of time on the shower, mainly washing his hair carefully, since it was his pride and joy. Still, it wasn’t like he left Otabek alone for that long: he always took 30 minute shower so he figured the room was gonna be exactly like he left it.

Instead, he heard a sweet mellow voice coming from the room, half singing half purring words he’s never heard before. _Я приятную дрожь ощущаю, С головы до ног...41_

He practically barged in to find Otabek sitting on his bed with his laptop on his lap, singing. And boy, could he sing. There was a soft female voice coming from the device, chanting along in perfect harmony.

He felt his legs grow weak under his weight, forcing him to lean on the door frame, eyes wide and mouth agape, completely awestruck. He could tell by the boy’s voice  that making him sing was gonna be interesting, but he had never pictured that.

_И следы на постели напомнят, Про счастливую ночь…_

Leo didn’t dare speak: he was stunned, mesmerized. He heard the brief exchange afterwards and noticed Otabek was talking to someone close to him; not by the words, since he couldn’t understand any, but because of the way he leaned closer onto the camera, smiling wide and fearless, for once.

It was beautiful.

Leo waited until Otabek finished his call and close the laptop to walk in, but his friend spoke up first.

“Since when have you been standing there?”

“Um, well, not long, but…” Leo couldn’t understand why was he stuttering so much. It was such Otabek, for Christ’s sake! The fact that he happened to have a beautiful singing voice was a minor detail. Right? “Look, your voice is just… Ugh!”

Otabek sat up cross legged on the bed having put up his laptop on the desk, staring at him in a mix of utter disbelief and straight up confusion. Pouting. He had no right to be so cute.

“I just… I need to do something, OK?” Leo managed to walk to the side of the bed, positive that he was still trembling. “Close your eyes.”

“What? No.”

“Please? It’s nothing weird, I promise.” Otabek scoffed and kept staring. “It’s gonna get worse if I don’t get it out now, man.”

Otabek raised his brow “What is?’”

“Just... Cierra tus putos ojos de una vez.42 I’m not asking for much.” Leo practically pleaded, he knew. But he was sure he needed to get this stupid idea out of his head. His protegé wasn’t allowed to be so beautiful.

Finally, Otabek gave in after a long sigh, surely just to make shut up about it. Leo kneeled in front of him, and put his hand at each side of his friend’s body on the mattress, closing the distance between them.

He softly brushed his lips against the boy’s, creating a warm, but unreciprocated pressure. Leo felt him tense up suddenly, turning his hands into fists. The only reason he didn’t immediately back away seemed to be shock. Leo kneeled back down.

“Well... that was shit.” he shrugged.

“What was that about?” Otabek’s voice was low, defensive, yet not angry. Leo stepped way past his boundaries, he knew, but he needed to kiss him. He needed his peace of mind back.

“I just needed to know, ok? Not gonna happen again” Leo sat on the bed next to Otabek, but he pulled back, his back clashing against the bed frame. “It really won’t, just… there was no spark, y’know? I needed to make sure of that.”

Otabek leaned to him as if he was suddenly speaking Chinese. “... Excuse me?”

“You know, when you kiss someone you like, the thing fluttering on your stomach, the spark?” Leo stared, practically analyzing his friend’s expression. “Don’t you? Haven’t you….?

His eyes grew wide.

“Am I…. am I your first kiss?”

Otabek scoffed, “I’m most definitely not counting that thing as a kiss.”

Leo had to suppress the laughter trying to escape him; he knew that no matter his license restriction, Otabek was perfectly capable of taking his bike and going back to his dorm if he said anything out of line now. “Go look for your kitty cat: you’ll get what I mean,” he winked.

He got his answer in the form of a pillow flying to his face.

 

* * *

 

40\. [The lovebirds]↩

41\. [[Сектор Газа - Лирика]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wGAfWMPRNdc)↩

42\. [Close your fucking eyes already.]↩

 


	3. However Far Away

Over the next few weeks, a routine had developed: Lucía would ask Leo how ‘his boy’ was every morning before leaving, then find a reason to invite Otabek home. Leo would find Otabek around the halls and convince him to take Leo home with silly pick up lines, or mentions of that certain really special person to him. The night would come before they knew it and Otabek would have to stay.

Leo was sure Otabek appreciated this routine as well: it must have been hell to sleep in a dorm filled with bored, party-loving high school students, and he knew his room was becoming a haven for Otabek when he started noticing books and clothes left around. Otabek always brought a change of clothes and his laptop.

Leo had finally met Otabek’s sister via Skype: and she was beautiful, long raven hair and those deep dark chocolate eyes of her brother. She had a temper, too, especially when she felt the need to clarify they were ‘a bit too close’, almost displaying her fangs to him. Leo could understand perfectly his friend’s fascination with someone as complicated to deal as the Ice Tiger of Russia after having dealt with the jealousy of a 9-year-old little sister. The guy was meant to be around wildcats, after all.

Of course, they never mentioned the fake relationship to her: she needed to know the truth. Or the important part of it at least. That her asocial, lonely big brother had found a friend that would fight the whole school to defend him if he needed to.

They didn’t mention this famous friend might have loudly threatened a girl in class for trying to inquire about Otabek’s sex life. A 9-year-old didn’t need to know that.

There weren’t many doubts about their relationship anymore; they would have seemed attached to the hip if it weren’t because they didn’t share classes. Otabek hardly spent anytime in his dorm; they arrived at school and left together every day for the past week. The questioning looks became ‘aww’s and gossiping behind their backs. Leo would say goodbye to him leaning close to whisper something in his ear that the students would think was flirting because of the way Otabek smiled at it: shyly, but still there. They were mostly cheesy pick up lines, usually involving kittens, or tigers, or idols; they were always in Spanish.

That was why he was so surprised when he spoke to his coach during a break in his session.

“Altin’s leaving at the end of the school year.” She didn’t seemed shocked about it, like it was a normal occurrence for someone to just… vanish without a word. Leo felt a knot in his throat, his hands twisting into fists at his back: he wouldn’t show his anger to the coach, she had no reason to understand. “He hasn’t been too happy about his performance here; he told me he needed much more than this to cause an impression. I have to agree with that.”

He felt his voice struggling to get out but managed not to tremble when it finally did. “He’s a good skater.”

“Not good enough. He wants the gold, every gold. He’s a long way away from it.” Leo knew it wasn’t just the gold he was after. A wave of spite washed him over like never before.

Sure, Yuri Plisetsky could do nothing about it, he was certainly not aware of anything. But Otabek? The rage grew like a spark of heat crawling up his spine, making him clench his teeth absentmindedly. Otabek should have known better. He should have said something, not just… Run off.

What was with this boy and running away? Was Leo too pushy, trying to figure out what was going on in his mind that stopped him from speaking up? Was he a nuisance, a necessary evil?

No, scratch that. _Fuck that_. He had put his reputation on the line for him, and as a well-known person, that was saying something. He had opened the doors to his home, had introduced him to his family.

He had lied to his family, the people he loved the most, for him. He had lied to the whole world for him. He had been almost beaten up just for stopping some wankers to take advantage of him.

For fuck’s sake, he literally threatened a girl with fucking up her social life just for a stupid taunt. He was lucky his fans didn’t hold onto that; he was lucky his sponsors didn’t notice.

Leo had spent almost every minute of his free time around Otabek, trying to make him laugh, to understand him a bit better, to learn something about him with no success.

Comforting him.

He had spent every minute of his free time making sure Otabek was as safe and relaxed as he could be, even though that wasn’t much, just for the sake of seeing him happy. It almost felt like he was the baby brother Leo never had.

Yet Otabek might have forgotten to mention _he was leaving_. Every time they got together.

For the past month, according to his coach: the only reason he hadn’t left now was because he wanted to finish the school year.

Maybe even allow a naive idiot to take him to Prom. Because that was how Leo felt right now. Naive. Stupid. Fooled.

Abandoned.

Otabek was leaving him without a word. Leo couldn’t allow that.

“Iglesia? You still there?” He looked up to notice he had been mumbling through his teeth, furrowed brows and fists shaking behind him; he could feel the slight moisture of the wounds carved by his own fingernails on his palms. “He must have told you, since you’re so… close.”

He bit his lip to stop it from quivering but he could already feel the sting of tears forming on his eyes, blurring his vision. “...He must have forgotten”, he managed to spit out, hissing. He was glad he hadn’t changed yet, just dropped the bag on the bench to talk to his coach about the other boy’s next program.

He gulped, trying to calm down his racing heart. He couldn’t. “I… I don’t feel well today, It’s a…” He tried to find an excuse: a twisted ankle, a torn muscle, anything; he could only think about the way Otabek smiled at him when they were alone, sincerely. His breath became shallow, and his voice finally broke. He needed to get out, he needed some air. He couldn’t stand the pressure in his chest, stopping the air from reaching his lungs. He wanted to scream, to curse his friend, and the time the spent together, and his silly heart that thought Otabek actually _cared_ for him.

He had been so stupid. He was just a means to an end for him. “I need to go.”

Leo caught a glimpse of his coach shaking her head at him, pitying him. It made his gut twist again.

He saw, or he thought he saw, Otabek turning to stare at him taking his bag in a haste and storming off. On other time, he would have said Otabek was worried about him.

Now, Leo swore the guy was only concerned about his cover being blown.

If Otabek gave a shit about him, he would have told him. He would have spoken up. He hadn’t.

The twist on Leo’s gut again. He was certain he had never run that fast in his life, arriving at his home in record time, and slamming the door of his room behind him.

He threw his bag and jumped on his bed to hide his face hard against the pillow, ignoring the concerned words of his mother through the door.

He heard her said the word, dealing the final blow, _Otabek_ , and he couldn’t repressed the sobs anymore. His body shook violently as his bawling became louder every time, almost silencing the noise coming from the phone buried deep on his bag.

A particular ringtone, set up only for one numer.

_Сигарета мелькает во тьме…_

He cried out into his pillow. How could he have been so stupid?

* * *

Otabek could sense that his coach was upset at him after Leo left. She wasn’t usually so harsh on his technical skill, saying that it would improve only with practice. She commented on his artistic merit before anything else, knowing his interpretation was where he was most lacking.

She was known as the go-to coach when a skater wanted to learn how to express themselves in a way that would win gold. It was why Otabek’s parents had sent him to her in the first place.

However, today was filled with, “Not enough power!” and, “Posture, Altin! This is amateur level knowledge!” There was nothing unbalanced about his posture; it just wasn’t that of a ballet dancer. Why was she acting like this?

Why had Leo acted the way he did?

JJ had texted Leo immediately and received a reply about feeling sick, but Otabek knew that had to be a lie. He’d been just fine all throughout the day. When Leo was sick, he tended to battle through it until he collapsed. Otabek had seen him with food poisoning once and had to practically stuff him under the covers to prevent him from going to school that day.

There was something that had upset Leo. There must have been.

Otabek drove to Leo’s home as fast as he could once practice was over. Usually, he would go to the gym at this time, but he had to know what was happening. Why wasn’t Leo answering Otabek’s calls?

Lucía glared suspiciously at him when he knocked, blocking his way in. “Por qué Leo esta llorando?43” She demanded.

Otabek’s eyes widened. “He’s crying…?” He could see that Leo was upset when he left, but crying? He’d been too far to notice anything like that.

His throat tightened. He wanted to see Leo now, but… “Does he want to be alone? He’s not answering me.”

Lucía softened her expression, responding to Otabek’s anxiety. “Probably. He won’t talk to me, either. But you can try now.”

She stepped out of the way and Otabek hesitantly made his way upstairs. He went through all of the day’s events, but he couldn’t figure out what had happened. What was wrong?

He knocked on the door. He couldn’t hear any crying through the barrier. However, once Leo yanked the door open and dragged Otabek in roughly, it was evident. His eyes were still red and puffy. How much had he been crying?!

“Leo-”

“Don’t.” Leo’s voice was hoarse and patchy. “Don’t fucking talk.”

He was storming around the room, going through various drawers and ripping clothes out of them. It took a moment, but Otabek realised it was his own clothes being stuffed into an old travel bag.

“Leo…!” Otabek tried to approach him, but he was shoved away with more strength than Leo had ever used on him. He winced, clutching his head where it had hit the bed frame.

“What did I tell you?!” Leo refused to meet his gaze. “You should be grateful. At least, you won’t forget anything here before you move to Canada.”

“What…?”

How did Leo know that? He couldn’t have known! Otabek had only been told the plan a few days ago by his mother. There had been talk of moving rinks for a while, but they happened all the time. Otabek didn’t want to say anything until he knew for sure what was going on.

He didn’t even have the plane tickets yet.

Otabek was speechless as he got himself back up. Of course Leo was angry at him. He should’ve said something sooner. That’s what friends did, right? Update each other on what was going on? Otabek simply hadn’t had a good opening to bring it up. Or perhaps, he didn’t want to yet acknowledge that Leo would no longer be around soon.

Otabek was filled with an unfamiliar bitterness. Not at Leo, but at his situation. HIs family. Why was his skating so sub-par? Why couldn’t he settle down, make friends? He’d never cared about keeping in contact before, but now, he knew he was going to miss Leo when he left. Possibly JJ, too. He wasn’t sure how to react to it.

Leo threw the bag at Otabek’s chest. “There. You can fuck off now, since that’s what you planned.”

Anger gave way to panic, as it dawned on Otabek just how upset Leo was. “Wait, Leo, I don’t understand-!”

“What? You still need to keep girls away? Or use my home? Take my mom’s cooking? Don’t fucking try me!”

“No, I want-!” _I want to stay friends._ That’s all he had to say. Why was his throat so tight?

Leo looked pained and exhausted. And it was all Otabek’s fault. “You want to leave. Right. Gold over everything, isn’t it?” He slumped on his desk chair and turned his back to Otabek. “I get it, at least. You’re not the only athlete like that.”

“I’m sorry,” managed to choke out Otabek. He wasn’t crying yet, but he could feel the burn of tears behind his eyelids. He blinked them away. “I just… wanted to be sure.”

“Really? And how long was that?”

Otabek lost the answer before he could give it. Sure, his parents had only made the confirmation recently, but he’d planned to leave for a while. He knew he could be more confident in his skating. There had to be something better out there. Something that could bring life to his skating.

Yuri Plisetsky had inspired him like never before, and Otabek had spent the last three years looking for something even similar to that. This was the first time he’d lost something in his search.

He ran away again. There was no point in drawing this out. He’d just have to avoid Leo for the few weeks until the end of the semester.

If Lucía noticed his tears, she didn’t say anything. The door was shut behind him with a resolving bang.

* * *

43\. [Why is Leo crying?]↩

* * *

Leo heard the slamming of the door perfectly. The revving of the engine. He let his head fall onto his knees covering it with his arms. He did exactly what he needed to do. Otabek wanted out, didn’t he?

Didn’t he?

The image was still engraved into his mind, as if it was all he could see. Otabek had ran off before: he did it every time a situation got so incredibly overwhelming he felt the need to escape from the world. He moved through life fueled by passion alone, and half the times his well mannered behaviour couldn’t hide it so well.

He was gonna win or he was gonna be consumed by it. And those weren’t the eyes of a winner.

He was hurt. Confused. Angry, even. But he didn’t say a thing, and that was what made Leo grit his teeth, tug at his hair, scream inside of his little cocoon. Otabek never said a thing.

If he had, none of this would have happen. If he only dared to speak up, Leo would know how to feel. He would know if he was a friend to him, or a pawn in his game, disposable after every move.

Yet Otabek never did. He ran, that was what he did after all, and Leo was furious still. Betrayed. Lonely.

Worried.

He had never left the boy alone during a crisis. Leo’s chest still felt heavy, his breath still shallow, his legs barely responded to his commands, shaky. Still, he got up. He put on a jacket.

He has never let Otabek alone in his moments of need. He wasn’t gonna do it now.

  


He ran like a maniac through the streets, almost clashing with a handful of people along the way; he didn’t stop until he was standing in front of the building. He didn’t care anymore about the streak marks on his face, his eyes swollen red, his hair a mess of strands going everywhere. He just wanted Otabek close again. He wanted him to _talk._ Honestly this time. For once.

The good thing was that the front door of the dorms are never locked. The bad news? He had absolutely no idea which one was Otabek’s room: they had been chatting and joking around when he came and he couldn’t even remember how many floors did they walk up the stairs. They couldn’t have been many, but then again, they were athletes: they didn’t get exhausted so easily.

He found someone, enormously tall, ginger and with an expression that danced in between blackout drunk and murderous thug. He took his chances anyways.

Blackout drunk as he was, the man still remembered the quiet, foreign guy who stayed there. Second floor, Leo would have to guess which dorm, but it was better than nothing. Leo mumbled a thank and sprinted up the stairs, banging on the first door he could find. A guy that could easily outweigh him a couple of times, looking like he just got out of some action movie where people apparently did a shit ton of weight lifting and not much sleeping, judging for the black marks under his eyes, answered with a scowl on his face.

“I need to find Otabek.” He wanted to say hello, introduce himself, maybe apologize? He couldn’t. The words spilled out of his mouth before he got time to think about them. The guy just stood there, trying to catch the sense of that sentence.

“Third door to your right. Hey, aren’t you…?” Leo ran off before he could finish the sentence, banging desperately on the right door.

He didn’t notice the guy following him. He didn’t notice more people coming out of their rooms at the noise.

Leo yelled at the door for him, and paused: if he knew his friend at all, he would flinch at the commotion Leo was causing. He stopped at let his forehead rest against the door, speaking softly, yet loud enough so Otabek would listen. He couldn’t hear a sound from inside the room.

“Beku… Please open up? I need to speak to you…” He had the chance, he was too pissed to take it. Sure, Otabek fucked up, but his anger didn’t let him see the way he’s hurt him too.

Of course he wouldn’t see it, it’s not like Otabek allowed him to, not like he’d talk instead of running for dear life. “I need _you_ to speak, for once.”

“He doesn’t want anything to do with you, kiddo, cut it out.” The familiar voice spoke with a particular roughness at his back, and he recognized it as the man that gave him directions. He didn’t listen, he didn’t turn.

“I refuse to let you go without saying a word to me. I won’t be ignored, Otabek! Open up!” He knew his voice was turning firm, his anger overpowering him again. He just wanted to speak to his friend, damm it! Why was everyone staring? Why was this guy trying to kick him out?! He was no one, he wouldn't understand. No one would, Otabek was special. He was quirky, and communicated in his own way and at his own pace, but he knew what that was. He knew when to retreat, and this wasn’t the time. This was the time to face him. Still.

“Hey, shrimp, I told you to beat it!”

“FUCK OFF!” He was shocked at the volume, the violence of his own voice, but he woke up from the spell quickly. A hand pull hard from his shoulder to make him spin around like he was weightless, a mere ragdoll on the giant man’s arms, and another came down to grip him shirt tight, pushing him hardly against the door. Leo didn’t bulge, looking at him defiantly. He wasn’t a fighter, but he was a friend: he would take anything he needed to just to be able to speak to Otabek again.

“Listen, you little shit, I-” Leo lost his balance for a second, and saw a firm hand grasping tightly the guy’s wrist, knuckles turning white at the pressure. The door was open, Otabek spoke clearly, firmly, unhesitantly.

“Enough.”

The guy was getting ready to argue but a new tightened grip on his wrist make him desist. He mumbled something about catching Leo on his way out and walked off, the crowd following him slowly. Otabek slammed the door shut and sat on his bed, looking at his feet.

“You stormed off.” Leo winced at his poor choice of words, a new force tightening his chest as if the giant would have pierced his way into his chest to grab his heart and squeeze it dry. Otabek had been crying; it was barely noticeable but it was there. He looked ashamed- But he was still silent. “Why the fuck did you storm off?”

“You didn’t want me there.” The answer was clear and quick, like it was a line he’s been practising to convince himself.

“I was pissed at you, of course I didn’t want you there! But you were supposed to stay.” He knew Otabek had raised his brow at him in confusion, even though he couldn’t see his face. He always did when Leo said stuff like that. “I wanted you to tell me you didn’t intend to run away from me.” Silence. The lack of reaction was exasperating. He sat cross legged right in front of Otabek’s legs, so he could at least see his face.

It was heartbreaking. He looked completely defenseless, like a kid abandoned on his own, lips quivering and shallow breathing. His hands were fidgeting as he looked up just once to meet Leo’s eyes and hid again, lips trembling harder.

“Convince me.” Otabek looked up at the sound of Leo’s voice. “Convince me that you didn’t just forget about me.” His voice broke slightly. “That you care.”

Otabek took a long breath, two. He was about to say something when he bit his lip to restrain himself and started over.

“I was gonna tell you, I just...” Pause. He looked up to the ceiling and back again, “I just didn’t know how.”

Leo shot up in a second, prancing around the room. “Really, man? That is fucking lame.” He felt tears threatening to fall again and brushed them off harshly. “You couldn’t speak? Text me. I don’t know. ANYTHING. You’ve been spending every single fucking day with me. And you couldn’t have told me?!” He knew he was being too rough on him, too loud; he didn’t need to look at him to know he flinched and shrunk back into the bed.

“I don’t even know when I’m leaving, My parents are handling it, they just told me a few days ago.”

“A few _days_ ago? And how come the coach knew? For, like, a month? That’s a shitload of time for giving a bit of a heads up, don’t you think?” His voice was breaking again, but he was never one to hide his feelings. He knew this wasn’t the way, he came here to understand, to listen, not to fight him again.

“I was gonna change coaches, I just…” The fucking pauses were killing him. Leo knew they were there because, unlike him, Otabek was refusing to let his voice quiver, trying hard to maintain composure. “... didn’t know the details of it.”

“Why would you? Why would you even LEAVE?”

“I’m not good enough.” Otabek’s voice peaked, suddenly sounding like the little teenager he actually was. Soft and shaky and _broken_. He covered his face with his hands, but once it got out, Otabek couldn’t stop. “I can’t stay, I need to get better, I need to get somewhere, I..” Leo could have sworn he hear him muffling a sob, “I just wanna go home.”

Leo didn’t realize he was crying again until he felt tears tracing his jawline. He didn’t bother drying them: he walked straight to the bed, placing his hands at the back Otabek’s neck, letting his lips fall into the boy’s hair.

“I’m sorry, please stop, I’m so sorry.” He could barely hear him under his embrace but his shoulders still shook violently. “I’m an idiot, I shouldn’t have… Fuck, please, Beku, just…”

He pulled Otabek’s hands forcefully away from his face to make him look straight at him. “You’re not alone, you hear? You’ll never be. Here, in Canada, in Kazakhstan, wherever you are, I’m here for you. Got it?”

Otabek held his gaze, biting his lips until he couldn’t anymore: he pulled his knees up to hold his legs close to his body as he cried silently. Leo was completely stunned: he had made the most silent guy open up. He had made him laugh, he had made him smile. Sing. And then he broke him into a million pieces because, of course, he couldn’t just ask. He had to go ahead of it all and act like a thirteen-year-old idiot with a crush, crying into his pillow.

There was something inside of him begging to pull the boy into a hug, but he didn’t dare; he didn’t even dare touching him. He couldn’t fix this; he wanted to, he just couldn’t. He hovered his hand closer to the boy just to let him know he was still there for him. And felt a soft warmth enveloping it.

Otabek had held his hand and was gently pressing it to assure him that it was alright. He barely looked up from his knees, eyes red yet soft as never before. “Stay, please?”

He couldn’t say no to such a plea.

He didn’t feel like stepping out of the room to get dinner, so he called for some take out as Otabek stepped into the shower, calmer now, but still staring at him from time to time like he was about to speak. He wondered if he just has a personal problem with calling people their friends or something.

Or maybe he was trying to let him know that some people, particularly the guy who tried to hit him, were looming around his doorstep, trying to figure out what happened. When Leo got out to get their dinner, the man put his thumb up next to his neck and move it across, but didn’t come any closer. Leo couldn’t be bothered by bullies just now. He had more important issues to attend.

The night felt different than others; silent. But not for that any awkward; they would call Otabek’s little sister as soon as he sure that there was definitely no trace of his outburst anymore, to say goodnight, and go to bed early. Otabek pulled himself closer to the wall so they wouldn’t touch during the night, but Leo spent a good part of it just staring down at him, sleeping. Peaceful.

He was proud of the man he was sure Otabek was gonna become.

* * *

If Otabek was honest, his head was still reeling from the dramatic events of last evening, as he drove to school with Leo. He wasn’t the kind of person to make a scene, but he should’ve expected it from Leo, really.

He was happy that he still had Leo as a friend. Part of him was a little embarrassed, though. He hadn’t cried in front of someone in a very long time, and had never told somebody about his bouts of homesickness. He could only be thankful at how well Leo dealt with him.

“There’s rumours everywhere,” remarked Leo, immediately on his phone after Otabek had parked. “Everyone thinks we’ve broken up.”

Right. The fake relationship. Otabek had completely forgotten about it, if he were honest. He waited for Leo to voice his own opinion on what they should do, but the Senior only shrugged and kept walking.

They headed to Leo’s locker first. JJ was leaning against it, clearly waiting for them.

“Care to explain what the fuck’s going on?” He asked. He seemed more worried than upset, especially for Otabek. Their glances kept meeting.

Leo spoke up first. “We had an argument.”

JJ raised an eyebrow. “I figured that.”

Otabek sighed and chose his words carefully. “I’m leaving after the semester is over. I’m getting a new coach.”

JJ blinked, unconvinced. “Really, is that all? I mean, I might be leaving too, depending on what college I go to and shit.”

Leo scoffed, “That goes for both of us, but at least we’d _mention_ something way before we actually leave.”

“And we’re gonna see each other in competitions, anyway-”

“Okay, okay. There was more to it than that. But it’s done,” interrupted Leo.

“Whatever, I just don’t get how you guys got into a screaming match. But it’s all good now, right?” Otabek rolled his eyes. _He_ hadn’t been screaming. Nevertheless, both him and Leo nodded.

There was a pause, then JJ changed the subject. “Why do you need a new coach, Beks?”

“I think I could do better with a different one. I don’t get along with her all that well.”

“Same,” muttered JJ. “You know this other coach will be better, then?”

“No,” admitted Otabek. “But I don’t mind taking the risk, if I can find inspiration for my skating.”

“Dude, you just need to watch JJ Style more often if you need to be inspired!” JJ winked.

“Fuck off.”

  


There wasn’t any public attempt to ‘fix’ the relationship over the next few days. Really, it was almost a relief to be free from the act for a while. Questions were asked, but it was understood that there should be some sensitivity from fans.

It was definitely easier for Otabek, at least. The same couldn’t be said for Leo.

  * __another invite__



What was that, the twentieth girl who’s asked to be Leo’s prom date? Everyone wanted to go to Senior prom. With Leo and JJ, as well as most of the skateboarders, there was bound to be some drama taking place.

Otabek had offered to restart the whole thing, but Leo had reminded him that it would mean Otabek would be expected at Prom. He didn’t mind, really, but Leo had been slow to give a definite answer.

Last night, he’d warned Otabek not to visit his place. He said that his mother had friends over again, but he wasn’t a good liar. Otabek could see right through him. He was pretty miffed about the lie, but he didn’t want to start another argument before he learnt what was happening. There had to be something, right?

It was only him and JJ at lunch. “Where’s our chico at?” JJ asked. Otabek only shrugged. He hadn’t seen him at all today. He was starting to get worried. Was he even in school today?

JJ suddenly looked ahead, over Otabek’s shoulder, then quickly moved both his and Otabek’s food trays to the side.

“Hey-!”

Otabek’s protest was cut short by the strums of an acoustic guitar and squeals from girls all around the room.

_“Let me take you on a trip…44 _ _”_

Oh, Leo had to be joking. Otabek turned to find himself being directly stared at. Leo was grinning, sauntering towards his target of affection. Behind him, a couple of girls held up a large sign asking, _‘Prom?’_

Leo sat on the table, his feet on the chair next to Otabek’s. He was performing for everybody; his voice was loud, clear and crisp. Otabek couldn’t blame the girls for their jealous looks. He was sure he would be swooning if he had been one of Leo’s fans.

So, he wasn’t quite swooning, but he was definitely… attracted. Leo had a lovely voice.

_“Your lips close to my lips…”_ Leo leant closer, as much as he could with the large instrument in the way. Otabek’s cheeks heated up, but he didn’t back away. This was all part of the act, right? But it was also Leo’s way of making amends. Playing the guitar had been his way of getting close to Otabek in the first place. It was now what would set their relationship back into motion. Both as friends and ‘lovers.’

Otabek knew he was grinning by the end of the song. He knew everyone was staring at that more than at Leo’s performance. He was having a hard time caring.

The song ended with whoops and cheers. Otabek rolled his eyes when Leo took his hand and kissed the knuckles softly, like the pretentious fop he was.

“Eres puro chamullo,45” muttered Otabek.

Leo hummed and ignored the jab. “Otabek Altin… my sweet Beku, will you go to Prom with me?”

There was a chorus of dramatic gasps, even though everyone knew it was coming. Otabek raised an eyebrow, waiting for Leo to shift nervously from the suspense. He shouldn’t, but it was fun to watch.

“Of course I will,” he finally responded.

Leo grinned and put the guitar onto the table to give Otabek a proper hug, amidst cheers and yells of encouragement.

“Mientras estés aquí, me voy a encargar de que pases el mejor momento de tu vida,46”Leo whispered in his ear. Otabek tilted his head, but Leo didn’t say anything more.

JJ turned up to turn their embrace into a group hug, and leant in. “I don’t get it. I thought this shit was all fake?”

“It is,” Leo responded.

“Are you sure? Did you hear those lyrics? Like I get you’re not… bed-fucking, but there was clearly some eye-fuc-”

Otabek silenced him by stepping on his foot, hard. “Leave my Prom date alone, asshole.”

* * *

44\. [[World in my eyes - Depeche Mode]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qOOf6KWxih8)↩

45\. [You are full of shit]↩

46\. [As long as you’re still here, I’m going to make sure you have a great time]↩

* * *

JJ kept on trying to chime in the whole training session; all he got was some extra scolding by the coach. Who, seeing the recent change of events, seemed much more relaxed than a few days ago.

Still, Otabek would glance from time to time at Leo’s direction and bite his lip to stop himself from smiling, only to get yelled at for getting distracted during practice.

Leo wasn’t really bothered by it.

In fact, he was secretly loving it.

He was sure he finally made an impression deep enough to be consider as an important person in his friend’s life, even when the guy didn’t know how the hell to use that word.

How could Otabek even begin to consider himself to be all alone when even his dorm mates, who he’d never speak to, tried to defend him? How could he, when he wasn’t even sleeping in his bed anymore, always preferring Lucía’s home cooking and hospitality? It was silly, really.

He just hadn’t noticed how much love there was around him. But he finally realised.

And Leo was damn proud of that.

They walked out together, of course, earning themselves some fangirls’ romantic sighs as Otabek turned on the engine of the bike. Suddenly all eyes were on them. Again, but this time for other completely different reasons.

Yeah, he might have gone a bit far this time, even involving some random girls from his class and all. He might have been loud and obvious and so cheesy he was sure Otabek would punch him just to shrug off the sweetness on the air. But the trick worked, and not only that: it got Otabek smiling throughout the rest of the afternoon. More subtle this time, sure, but still.

Leo may be loud and pushy sometimes, but he could be charming. He could certainly take pride in that.

Especially because he had something planned for tonight.

Leo practically dragged Otabek upstairs, grabbing him by the wrist while yelling a humble, “Hello, sorry, we’re busy!” at his mother as they went. Otabek couldn’t understand what was with the rush, but didn’t get a chance to fight it. He was free by the time they got to Leo’s room, and sat on the usual desk chair while Leo took his guitar out of the case, starting to tune it.

“Leo?” He sounded confused, curious. That was definitely Leo’s cue.

“Listen to this: I’ve been practising it,” he looked up at Otabek and winked, “for a special occasion.”

_“The way you're dancing makes me come alive…”47 _

Leo started to sing in a particular way, letting the notes roll of his tongue, almost purring every word. Looking down so he couldn’t see the evident discomfort on his friend.

“ _So move closer, I want to feel your touch…_ ” and Otabek visibly flinched, retreating back into his seat. He still let Leo finish the song, completely trapped in his own bubble where there’s nothing but the guitar and him.

“Um… would you mind explaining further?” Otabek asked right after Leo finally pull his head up.

“That one’s for you.” Leo grinned and had to suppress a chuckle when he saw the horror on Otabek’s face.

“Excuse me??”

“For you _to sing_. It’s more your style than mine, you see.” He chuckled and felt the deadly glare of his friend piercing into his bones. “You have a really good voice, Beku. It’s a shame to let it go to waste.”

“I’m not,” Otabek shifted in his seat, trying to scowl and ending up pouting. Leo would pull out his phone to take a picture if he weren’t because his life could in serious danger if he dared.

“So I don’t care what you do with this, but I’m gonna teach it to you. OK?”

Leo give him a minute to think. Two minutes. Otabek wasn’t answering. He offered the scribbled paper with the lyrics and tones on it and held it in front of him.

Otabek finally huffed in defeat and yanked the paper away. He studied it. He looked back at Leo in a mixture of anger and confusion.

“Seriously?”

“What?” Leo tried to defend himself but he was already laughing, just by looking at his friend’s face. He knew this was gonna be a special night, no matter if he said yes or not, and he wasn’t disappointed. “It’s a really good song, you heard it.”

“Kitty Litter?” Otabek said almost in disgust, “How do you even find these?”

“My sister is a die-hard Placebo fan.” Leo looked away, trying to feign innocence. “Y’know it’s a really good song for… impressing a certain-”

“Don’t go there.” Otabek tried to be firm but he was so visibly uncomfortable by the _erotism_ of the lyrics he kept just glancing at the piece of paper and blushing harder.

Leo guessed he was picturing a certain someone along the lyrics. He couldn’t miss his chance. “It’s a really alluring tune,” he leaned in closer to his friend’s face in order to whisper, “perfect to tame a tiger.”

That did it. Otabek put a hand on Leo’s face and pushed him forcefully back onto the bed, making Leo cackle like a madman. Otabek waited until he managed to stop and sit up to take a minute to think.

“Fine.”

Leo turned to him so quickly, he could have sworn he heard his neck snap. “Huh?”

“Teach me.”

This was gonna be a long interesting night.

They started, of course, with the one condition Otabek put forward: Leo had to go downstairs to assure his mother they were playing music and needed the door closed. Leo knew she would object, but he stood for the whole fifteen minute rant about the things he shouldn’t be doing under her roof just to be able to finally slam the door, exhausted. The nagging was gonna drain every bit of energy out of him one day.

They went through the tempo and listened to the original version of the song a couple of times until Otabek felt sure he could follow it.

Leo started singing. Otabek followed a couple of verses down.

Otabek’s voice was like dripping honey, the scent of bodies together, and a feral hunger, all somehow mixed together; it made Leo jump in late to the chorus, distracted by his own tongue licking his lips to satiate the feeling. That voice, singing that song... It was gonna kill him.

Leo thought it would be interesting. He didn’t think it was gonna be deadly.

Otabek was letting every note stretch out with the pulse of the guitar, vibrating softly out of his lips, almost moaning every word.

Leo couldn’t play this game for long. He stopped suddenly. Otabek shot his head up from the paper to look at him.

“Leo?”

“Stop, I just…” he felt his hands trembling again. Fuck. He was over this, he’d kissed the guy and it had been disastrous, it was all supposed to be gone. He chuckled to himself. “Sing like that, and you could enchant every little kitten within earshot.”

Otabek lifted up a brow, curious. “...Really?’”

“Really,” Leo huffed, “you sound like sex. That’s it: your voice as hot, is alluring, is… fuck, if you keep singing I’m gonna have to kiss you again.”

“Enough for tonight, then?” Otabek spoke too quickly; Leo must have scared him with his straight forward response. It sounded bad in his head, it must have sounded worse when he let it all out. He looked for his phone and started typing, almost as a way to distract himself from his own thoughts.

“Look, I’ll pass on the orginal song so you can practice. And keep the lyrics: I think I got it already.” He spoke quicker and more nervously than usual, but then again, looking at the time he could just blame it on the stupidly late it was getting. “We should go to bed before mamá comes shouting at us.”

Otabek just nodded and helped him get the air mattress ready.

Leo let himself fall heavily on the mattress, trying to shut his mind off the voice that kept on singing in his head. Shit. He pulled his knees closer to his body, just in case. “Buenas noches, Beku.”

“Good night.”

Leo closed his eyes and let the darkness calm him down, lull him to sleep. And he would have, if it wasn’t for the shuffling of fabric besides him, and a hot breath whispering, no, purring in _that damn_ tone of voice.

“Alluring, huh?”

Leo could hear the smile in his voice. This asshole was taking advantage.

“Vete a la mierda48.” He said, earning a chuckle from the guy above who shifted back into the bed. “You sexy idiot.”

* * *

47\. [[Kitty Litter - Placebo]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilG8EofSj-0)↩

48\. [Go fuck yourself]↩

* * *

If Otabek had learnt anything from his repeated nights over, it was that Leo was not a morning person. He wasn’t exactly awful; despite the rush every morning, he was very rarely late to class. However, for a professional world ranking athlete, he was often awful.

It was why Otabek assumed something had gone horribly wrong when he was woken up early Saturday morning? Was there an emergency? Was everyone alright?!

“Beku, we’re going shopping! JJ’s waiting downstairs!”

“...What?”

Otabek had never been suit shopping in his life. He’d only ever needed something formal for the occasional family wedding or dinner, but his parents had sorted that out for him. Was this meant to be as big a deal as his friends were making it out to be? Because Leo and JJ wouldn't stop talking about it.

“Okay, Me and Beku need matching fabric, for sure. Definitely not tweed; I ain’t here to look like I’m wearing my dad’s old suit. Maybe herringbone?”

“Nah, not for spring. Just go for cotton.”

“That works. Light or dark colour?”

“You could rock a cream suit just fine. Not so sure bout Beks, though.”

Otabek glared at JJ, but he didn’t care enough to speak up. Insults aside, most of the conversation was going way over his head.

It wasn’t much better going into the shop. Otabek knew that there was stuff like tailoring and proper fitting, bit he hadn’t expected an attendant to bustle around him, taking measurements.

“You need something adds height. Low buttons, low rise pants… pinstripes too?” The attendant concluded. “But you have a good body to work with. You all do, really.”

“Comes with being an athlete,” commented JJ. He was taking care of himself, for the most part. Otabek assumed that the photos JJ was taking was being sent to his father. “Hey, I’m trying these on.” He didn’t wait for a response before rushing off to the changing rooms.

Leo slunk up behind Otabek and held his waist gently. “What’s your favourite colour?” He asked.

“Why?”

“For the ties, silly! We’re getting matching ones.”

“Oh. You can pick, I don’t care.”

Leo pouted. “You’re no fun, as usual.” Otabek shoved him away, eliciting a giggle. The attendant moved onto Leo, who was given similar advice on how to add to his height.

“I would personally find fits that draw attention to your legs and your shoulders,” was the final respective advice for Leo and Otabek. However, before they could ask any further, JJ placed himself into the center of the room.

“How do I look? Great, right?”

Otabek gaped. The colour should’ve looked atrocious. Red, not quite blinding, but loud enough to draw attention. His shoulders looked sharp and stylish, accentuating their amazing proportion to his torso.

However, JJ was standing with his back to Otabek. From behind, the attention was diverted. Double vents flared out the bottom of the suit, and the slim fit of the pants… were very snug. Ridiculously snug. Obscenely so.

Otabek had never noticed how filled out JJ was. Why would he pay attention? But now…

He was interrupted by a dramatic gasp. Leo had his hand over his heart in exaggerated shock. “Otabek! How could you?!”

Otabek raised an eyebrow, although he had the sinking feeling that Leo was about to mention-

“Staring at another man so openly! How dare you?!” Most of the store was watching them at this point. “How selfish! You already have me, you can’t take my friend too!”

JJ sniggered, realising what Leo was on about. “Were you checking me out, dude?”

“No.” Otabek avoided his gaze pointedly.

“You’re both a liar and a cheater! I thought you loved me!” Cried Leo.

Otabek narrowed his eyes. “And what are you looking at right now?” JJ had his back to Leo, now that he’d turned to look at Otabek.

Leo blinked, then got back into his ridiculous ‘lover scorned’ role. “Don’t try to change the subject! I see right through you, asshole. ...Aunque entiendo perfectamente por qué49” The last sentence was muttered, barely loud enough for Otabek to hear.

JJ was laughing loudly, turning round and enjoying the way their eyes flickered down. “Am I the homewrecker now?”

“Yes!” replied Leo. “You stole my Beku from me! Seduced him with your stupid body and your stupid red and white suit. Like, I get it, you’re Canadian. Now get away! Never touch my darling again!”

A spurt of laughter came from Otabek at the idea of _JJ_ somehow seducing him. “Estás muy mal, Leo.50 ”

Leo staggered back. “Did you just-?! I can’t believe this! I had so much faith in you, and you insult me like this!!”

“Huh?” JJ pouted at being left out. “What did he say?”

“Well, I clearly deserve better than you! I pray we never meet again! Goodbye!” Leo huffed and stormed past everyone to the exit, as dramatically as he could.

There was an awkward pause as everyone tried to figure out where to go from there. Even Otabek, who knew that Leo was just playing around, was unsure if he should finish the transaction. Had Leo even made a decision on what kind of suit he wanted?

Eventually, Otabek’s phone buzzed, breaking the silence and getting everyone back into motion.

  * __Get the suits in black, beku bae. Ill pay u back for mine <3__



Otabek took a deep breath and pinched the bridge of his nose. Leo was going to kill him before he even stepped foot in Canada.

* * *

49\. [Although I can clearly see why]↩

50\. [You’re so out of it, Leo]↩

* * *

Finally, the day arrived; Leo couldn’t stop fidgeting around, fixing his tie in front of the bathroom mirror. A delicate blue, like the color of the ocean… something a bit lighter than what Otabek would usually wear. Leo thought of it as a compromise, and smiled to himself. He looked almost too eager to hear the engine roaring by his door, biting his lip like a little school girl while he kept on making sure the loose french braid starting right at the top of his head and pulling half of it back wouldn’t fall off during the night.

He secured it with an extra hair tie, just in case.

He heard to yell of his mother letting him know his ‘date’ was here. Funny. He was the Senior and he was being picked up by the guy he invited. Wasn’t it supposed to be the other way around?

Although he couldn’t drive a bike, so it wouldn’t be as cool.

Funny, he thought, when he banged his toe on the beginning of the staircase for rushing too much to go down. Why was he even in such a rush? This was the last day of school, and Otabek was leaving the night after. They wouldn't see each other again, not this much, not until the season starts. His chest tightened suddenly when he saw his friend at the door, impeccably dressed and hair perfectly slicked back, wearing a scarf under his suit jacket that matched Leo’s tie perfectly.

The guy was as asocial as could possibly be, but damn him if he couldn’t pull off the refined badass look too.

He thought of the perfect thing to say to make him shift that secure facade of him; Leo was sure that’s what it was. “...Hey.” He couldn’t. He felt himself biting his cheek and fidgeting, unable to play his part. Otabek lifted a brow at him and smirked. It reminded Leo of a certain night, and a certain voice, and _damn it, he knew._

Of course he knew, he must have noticed, the guy was undeniably attractive, and the suit wasn’t helping. At all.

“Hey. Should we go now?” Otabek said, a playful tint in his voice. Leo wanted to respond, to attack; anything to break this cat and mouse game he was losing at so badly.

He just nodded.

“Oh, my boy, you look so good!” Otabek got startled when Lucía approached him, almost screaming at his ear, to take his hand between hers. Leo was a bit embarrassed at how effusive and _loud_ his mother could be, but he knew it was all out of love. And he was secretly thankful for her doing what he couldn’t.

Otabek was too stunned to speak; he just stood there silently, watching her ramble. “I can’t believe I won’t be seeing you around anymore!” She moved her hand to wipe a tear that wasn’t there, “Promise me you’ll let me know when you get on the plane, OK? And if you arrive safely. Oh, and when you get to the dorms, how are they. If someone helping you move in-”

“Alright, mamá, that’s good, he’s got it, he’ll text you.” Leo walked in to stand in between them, Otabek clearly overwhelmed by it all. “Right, Beku?” He nodded, incapable of articulating a word.

“Fine, fine, but let me take a picture of you.” Lucía shuffled back into the house to bring out a camera. “I want to remember this: you’re going to Prom after all. Go, go, stand together. Right there by the bike.”

They both complied, stepping closer to the motorcycle on the driveway, Otabek’s hands resting on the handlebar and the driver’s seat while Leo draped his arm around the guy’s waist, earning a discontented grunt for it. He giggled and let it pass; he had so much more to do than that tonight. There was gonna be some slow dances, after all.

Leo took his chance, leaning barely a bit closer. “Looking good, love.”

Otabek didn’t retreat as he was expecting. Instead, he jumped onto the bike to start it, and handled a helmet to him. “Nice hair. Shall we go?” Leo fell his face flushed bright red and practically hid at Otabek’s back, waving his mother goodbye while she kept on shouting warnings at them.

They were gonna drink too much no matter what she said. The Seniors were organizing an after party and he would drag Otabek to it no matter what. The idea of the stoic boy wasted and mumbling under his teeth was just too funny to let it go. He held him close and suddenly noticed.

“You smell godly, amor. Is that for me?” Leo purred directly into Otabek’s ear and felt his shoulders stiffen. He didn’t get an answer for that one. At least, not in a language he could recognize.

Leo could have sworn the whole room stopped breathing all at once when they walked in, shoulder by shoulder. He was sure Otabek noticed it too, since he desperately took him by the hand as if it was a lifeline. His companion was stiff, almost scared at the attention. He was a famous performer and he got scared while being watched off the ice, it was ridiculous. Leo had to do something.

“Cielo, wait for me a bit, I’m getting us some drinks” Leo left his date move onto one of the seats as he trotted to where the rest of the Senior were laughing and talking about things they probably shouldn’t be, given how close to the adults were. He knew they had exactly what he was looking for.

He hid the little flask on the inner pocket of his jacket and walked to the refreshments table. He took two plastic cups and returned to Otabek, offering one to him. The boy twisted his face the second the beverage touched his lips.

“Really?”

Leo pulled out the flask barely enough for him to read it and put it back in its place. “A lil ol’rum is not gonna kill you, dude. Relax.” He took a sip of his drink and leaned closer until his lips almost touched; he could feel the hot breath on his face, sweetened by the drink, the scent of his cologne, the evident flush in his cheeks. “I told you. You’re gonna have the best time of your life as long as you’re here. I’m not letting you get away.” He stood up again. “You’re not gonna tell me you’re scared, aren’t you? It’s even too light to be a proper drink.” He said, lifting his cup to his lips. He was about to drink when Otabek spoke again.

“Is that a challenge?” Was he being smug now? He looked up at him, biting his lip in defiance. Too cute for Leo, almost sexy. He knew already that it was gonna be a wild ride tonight. He was definitely up to it.

“Bottoms up?” Leo gestured and Otabek smirked. They drained their drinks in a second; Leo could help but choke a bit on a aftertaste of the alcohol at the bottom. Sure, it wasn’t his first time drinking, but he didn’t go for spirits. Ever.

He looked at Otabek. He didn’t even feel it, the fucker. How dare he? Being younger, and supposedly less experienced, and looking so calm, so fresh. So _fucking handsome_? He wasn't having it. Not tonight.

He was about to walk back to get some drinks when he heard the commotion: JJ was being hustled into something by the lame skateboarders. Again.

They always did this: they knew it wasn’t hard to get to JJ’s head. Just mention the word ’dare’ and he’d do anything to prove he was best at it. No matter what it was.

Apparently, ‘it’ meant dancing. A fucking dance off, and he was already feeling giddy. He hoped to blend in the crowd when he felt a tap, more like a slap on his shoulder blade from someone who _already_ couldn’t hold his own weight on his feet, holding onto him.

“Are you going man?” Pause, hiccup. It was really early, when had this guy started drinking?, “That’s you buddy right there, can’t just ditch him.” He tried to move away and almost fell flat on his face, if it wasn’t for Leo reacting quickly and holding him by his arm. He heard a voice behind him.

“We’re not going to.” Otabek walked up to them, having ditched the jacket and scarf scrambled on his seat, to lean onto Leo’s ear, his breath barely brushing against the back of his neck. “Blade bros stick together, right?”

He still remembered that. Adorable.

And fucking embarrassing.

Also, did the guy even _dance_? Sure, Leo had absolutely no idea what he did to improve his step sequence on the ice, but it couldn’t be that.

He followed Otabek’s lead and challenge the skateboarders. The locker guy winked and threw a kiss at the boy. The answer was a gesture of disgust and a hiss.

Otabek couldn’t be as sober as he claimed.

JJ gestured the DJ to actually _announce_ the event and change the music to a beat Leo could only recognize as dubstep. The skaters took the turn, moving to it, and damn, they were good. The locker boy had his eyes fixed on Otabek, surely because without the jacket the white shirt, almost translucent over the tanned skin, left barely nothing to the imagination, marking his frame and every curve of his muscles perfectly. Tailors be blessed. Yet, the Sophomore only answered to the attention with a tilt of his head and a blank stare, unimpressed.

The crowd cheered; Leo almost jumped, noticing he had been staring at his friend’s back for a bit too long to not be weird. He tried to look away as the new tune started; he had nothing to worry about, his dance was almost like a reflex. He felt the music within his bones and could move to it perfectly, rum or not.

JJ went all the way as well, twisting and jumping and swooning more than one girl off their feet with just a little wink at their direction.

But Otabek… He didn’t dance with them. He never mentioned any form of training for it, yet he was there, owning the dance floor. The way he moved his body, so powerful, so in tune with the song, like it flowed right from him, was mesmerizing. Leo found himself gawking, staring almost indecently at his friend’s body, barely hidden under the slightly damp shirt (he would swear it was suddenly over a hundred degrees in there) and the bit too tight dress pants. His knees buckled when Otabek turned to him to smile and lick the edge of his teeth. Defiantly, definitely; it took all of his willpower to not close the distance between them and bite his lips bloody.

The music stopped and the results were clear: the skateboarders had nothing against them. Not against Otabek and whatever the hell it was what he did. JJ was ecstatic, palming the boy’s back.

“Where the hell did you learn how to move like that, man? Putain de merde,51 you wiped the floor with them!” Otabek barely smiled at him, realizing he just got the attention of the whole party to himself. He turned at Leo, surely looking for a word of encouragement.

“Marry me.” Leo was still stunned, breathing heavily and thanking every deity there is to thank for that his date didn't notice the way his eyes followed his every move.

Otabek huffed, but chuckle a bit anyways. “You’re an idiot.”

That snapped him back to reality: Leo giggled. “Ok, then, maybe a dance?”

They took off, shoulder to shoulder, to a more secluded part of the dancefloor.

They never left each other’s side.

  


JJ took the stage by the middle of the night, pulling out some hard rock song to make the crowd move, jump off their seats and sing along. Leo could barely pay attention at the song, laughing as hard as he was at the faces Otabek was pulling. Yeah, the lyrics were ridiculous, but JJ was a good musician after all.

And a generous one: he knew when to share the stage. He took a step forward.

“Now, I’m gonna give up the mic for a minute for my good friend here, but don’t worry, there’s much more JJ afterwards for all!” The crowd cheered; Leo just shook his head, chuckling. “Give it up for my man, Leo de la Iglesia!”

He heard the clapping and went up, taking the acoustic guitar left for him at the back of the stage and walking to the microphone. “Hey people, um…” He started to get nervous. Fuck. He looked around to find Otabek had retreated back to a seat right in front of the stage but way back. He centered his attention to him to stop the anxiety flooding in. “I’m gonna start with a slow one, so find whoever you wanna dedicate it to, and hang on to them. You should know this one.” He turned around to indicate the tempo to the drummer, who pulled off a simple beat for him.

He could see the second he started playing that Otabek did knew the song; his eyes widened when he recognized it. Leo hadn’t told him about this one, but it was fitting, wasn’t it?

“ _Whenever I’m alone with you, you make me feel like I am home again…52 _ _”_

The crowd started to shuffle to make a clear path between his place on the stage and Otabek, carefully studying every interaction. Otabek covered his face with his hands, blushed. Leo knew he was smiling.

_“However far away, I will always love you…”_

Otabek threw his head back, running his fingers through his hair. Leo could tell he was trying hard not to grin, but the shy smile was there. And maybe even blushed, if the lights weren’t tricking him.

“ _I will always love you.”_

Leo didn’t wait for the applause to die to start the next one, the one Otabek actually knew. It didn’t sound romantic and most people couldn’t understand the Spanish lyrics, so they drew the attention back solely to the stage. Leo could see the relief on Otabek’s shoulders when he got up to fetch himself another drink and stood there, patiently listening and clapping with the crowd when he finished.

Leo walked down the stage to meet him when the band started again. A slow song. He took the flask out, noticing the adults were too busy gossiping at the corner, to offer it to his friend. Otabek looked at him, expectantly:

“I didn’t know about that song.”

He decided to skip him and just have a gulp of the liquor himself; he felt the burning deep into his throat and tried to play it cool. Miserably.

“It was a surprise. A going away present. Did you like it?”

Otabek bit his cheek, looking away, almost measuring his words. “You could have warned me”. He finally took the half empty flask out of Leo’s hand and emptied it in a second. This was gonna go either extremely well or terribly bad.

“What kind of a surprise would that be, then?” He nudged on his shoulder and offered him his hand, “May I have this dance?”

Otabek took him by the wrist to hide the empty flask back into the inner pocket of his jacket, as he stop completely still by the sudden contact. He put his hand in Leo’s only to turn it around and place his other hand on the middle of his back.. “Of course.”

He lead Leo back to the dancefloor practically lifting him up in the air- or at least, that was what it felt like, after the rum and the fluid motions Otabek’s torso against his did, like he was connected to the music.

If someone would come and tell Leo they were all alone on the dancefloor, he would have believed it; he felt like on a bubble, nothing but him and Otabek, and the warm grasp on his back twisting him this way and that, and the penetrating music on his ears. It was almost intoxicating.

“You’re a fucking tease, you know that?” Leo didn’t even notice the words coming out of his mouth until Otabek’s little smug smile popped up again.

“You sang to me in front of the whole school. I needed my payback.”

Leo chuckled and hid his face on the crook of Otabek’s neck, feeling the slight tremor of a hidden flinch. He had to suppress the need to plant a kiss there, where the musky scent was strong enough to make him feel dizzy and wanting.

He needed to get the fuck away.

Luckily the music suddenly stopped: Otabek turned with him one more time to release Leo’s hand, yet not his hold on his lower back.

Leo looked up and saw the headmaster with an envelope on his hand. He didn’t even think of it: JJ _was_ the King, wasn’t he? He picked up his date out of practically every girl in school, and turned up finally with a blond exquisite beauty, known by her participation in multiple clubs.

Those kind of people always won these things.

So when he heard the names, he thought he was delusional.

What were the fucking chances?

Sure, he had serenaded Otabek in front of everyone; that was kind of cute. And yeah. They weren’t only a Prom date, they were supposed to be a “thing”. But come on. Didn’t they need a confirmation? What happened to that part? They’d never actually _kissed_ . Not in public at least, and Otabek would still insist in _never._

He looked around him and noticed the boy was just as surprised. Stunned. Fuck, he was probably freaking out just as much. Leo decided to take the lead; he took the hand still on his back and dragged him up the stage to get the crown. Leo took the queen’s tiara under the excuse that ‘it really fit with his braid’ and Otabek snorted at the thought.

The headmaster was about to say the usual bullshit he did when these things happen, so he pressed the hand he never released and whispered “wanna get out?” Otabek just looked at him, still dazzled by the whole crowning thing. Or maybe that was the rum. Leo didn’t actually drink much of it: it could possibly be the rum. “Y’know, take your stuff and,” he clicked his tongue. There was no way people could listen what he was saying, but they must be reading the body language; Leo decided he should give them every lead he could. “Disappear.”

Otabek looked barely around, took the crown of his head and pushed it onto Leo’s hand. “...Yeah.”

“Good.”

Leo took his tiara away and swung both at the crowd while the headmaster yelled in panic. Yeah, they were not supposed to do that, but they were not supposed to be dancing half drunk either. Or be lusting for a friend, just because he happened to look fucking hot in that tailored suit.

They jumped off the stage to grab the clothes discarded by Otabek at the beginning of the night and ran away, Otabek just following his friend blindly.

There was still a lot to come; Leo couldn’t help being anxious to get to their next stop.

He still had an ace under his sleeve.

* * *

51\. [Fucking hell (Or whore of a shit)]↩

52\. [[Lovesong - The Cure]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lv5qN4Qn9ss)↩

* * *

Otabek wasn’t sure if they were running, or walking… they were going somewhere, at least. He was being dragged by the hand.

“Are we going home?” he asked. He couldn’t quite figure out where Leo’s eyes were- Oh, there. Leo had his back to him, that was all.

There was a pause, then Leo laughed loudly. “Aw, you’re so cute! We share a home now?”

He continued before Otabek could figure out the joke. “We’re not going home, yet. Just be patient, okay, Beku?”

“Okay.” They started moving again, heading down a few blocks. Otabek had never been to this neighbourhood before, but the houses looked pretty large.

Was this a party?

He wasn’t sure if the music actually existed, or was simply an echo from Prom, until they entered one of the houses. He felt the beat of the bass through the floor more than anything else. That and the body heat of the various people brushing against him.

Leo disappeared for a second, then arrived with two red cups. “Vodka and cherry juice. I think.”

“...You think?”

“It’s very loud here.” Leo brushed Otabek off and took a gulp. Otabek followed his lead. It didn’t taste bad, he supposed. It was sweet enough.

Leo was saying something, but Otabek was suddenly distracted. Someone had moved off the couch. There was a free space.

And Otabek really needed to sit down.

He had no idea who he was pressed up against, but they seemed to care about as much as he did. Despite the rush in his head from the change in position, there was a welcome relief as he slouched back.

Leo looked around bewilderedly, then stormed up to Otabek in frustration. He was saying something, in some language, but Otabek wasn’t catching a thing. Was it the music or the alcohol? He couldn’t give a shit.

However, he did care a little when there was an unexpected pressure on his lap. “What are you doing...?” he slurred, nudging Leo in the back.

Leo leant back to say, “I want a break too.” Otabek wondered if he could counter that, but he didn’t think of anything. Whatever.

There was an odd silence as they listened to JJ perform again. The songs seemed to be raunchier than those from Prom, although Otabek supposed that was to be expected. He wondered if JJ was going to drink after he’d finished singing, but he was finding it hard to think about it for long.

This drink wasn’t tasting as good as before. It was getting bitter.

Otabek kept drinking it anyway.

His lap suddenly became cold as Leo shot up, seemingly remembering something. Otabek weakly reached out in protest, but he couldn’t be bothered to lean forward. He closed his eyes and focused on his breathing as best he could. Shit, how was the room still spinning even when he couldn’t see anything? Was he okay?

Probably not. He finished his drink.

There were whoops and cheers aimed at the stage. Otabek didn’t look at what was going on, but he assumed it had something to do with JJ. There was a moment where Otabek could hear nothing but the chatter and laughter of others.

He was rudely poked in the side. “Dude, your boyfriend’s calling you.”

“I don’t have-” Oh, right. Yes, Leo was there, on the stage, with a guitar in his grip.

Otabek placed the empty cup down and stood up. Well, stumbled up. But he was still okay. Just because the ground was shakier than normal, didn’t mean he couldn’t walk.

He wasn’t sure who helped him up onto the stage, but he was here and there was a microphone in his face. At least, Otabek thought it was a mic. He poked it to check.

And it was gone.

“Oi! Be careful with my equipment, asshole!”

Leo placed it back into position and took hold of Otabek’s shoulders. “Estás bien?53”

“Hm? Oh, da,” answered Otabek. “Why am I here?”

“You’re gonna sing the song, right?” Leo smirked, “You remember what it’s called, my sweet drunkard?”

“Uh… Kitten Shit.”

“Close enough.” Leo gave him an encouraging pat, then stepped back and started playing.

Otabek forced himself to focus, trying to remember his cue. Which was not easy when the beat kept shifting around. Or was that just him? How drunk was Leo, anyway? He should probably pay more attention to that.

No. Pay attention to this first. Come in now? ...Or now?

_“The way you're dancing makes me come alive...”_

Was that it? Well, he was singing now. Leo could deal with the rest.

He closed his eyes and tried his best to ignore the blazing heat on his skin, as well as the way the world kept shifting underneath him. He could practically feel the cool metal of the microphone brushing against his lips. He grabbed onto it, placing some of his weight against the stand to support himself.

Oh, that felt good. He brushed his fingertips around the edges of the mic, finding relief for his sensitive skin.

Some of his hair had fallen out of place. Quite a few strands, actually. When had that happened? When he was dancing, probably. How had he not noticed till now?

He tipped his head back, allowing his forehead, glistened with sweat, to cool slightly.

_“The way you're moving… Hips from side to side...”_

He shifted his hips along to the beat. It helped him relax, find a sense of balance against the disorientation of drink. The small moves grew more confident as he sang, till he was moving around the cramped corner of the room that had been marked for him. He wasn’t sure what he was doing, but at least he felt good.

_“This fortress in our hearts… Feels much weaker now we're apart...”_

Otabek turned his attention to Leo. That suited their situation, or what was going to be theirs. Well, not really, since they’re not actually dating. Otabek just wanted to make Leo blush.

Leo gently placed his foot against Otabek’s stomach, preventing him from pressing or falling against the guitar. Otabek couldn’t distinguish the colours enough to see any pink on Leo’s face, but he noticed the glint in his eyes and soft grin. Otabek smirked back. His voice was working on Leo again.

The song ended in that position. Otabek had one hand holding the mic close, while the other was rubbing against the bristle ends of his hair. Leo smiled and lowered his leg, leaning in to whisper something-

Otabek didn’t think. He tilted his head, placing his lips directly into Leo’s path.

Leo’s eyes widened; he couldn’t have stayed in place for more than a couple of seconds before jolting back. Otabek laughed at the shocked reaction. Taking Leo by surprise was always good revenge for the constant flirting and remarks on Yuri.

Without warning, he was directed by Leo to turn around, where…

That was a lot of people cheering.

JJ was near the front, looking somewhere between a lost child and a traumatised grandmother. Everyone else… Otabek couldn’t recognise them. Who the fuck had he been singing to?!

Leo placed an arm around his waist and helped him off the stage. “Didn’t even take a bow, Beku. How cold. You’re surprised people found you sexy?”

“Shut up and get me a fucking drink.”

* * *

53\. [Are you okay?]↩

* * *

Leo couldn’t believe it.

He had imagined it. A lot. How would it go, if Otabek would even _dare_. But he went there; up on stage, owning it, making the crowd shout for more.

He sang. And damn, how he sang. Like the words were imprinted into him, like his hips were creating the tune instead of his own guitar. Well, the guitar JJ’s friend had lent him.

He danced like no one was watching, free and careless. No, that wasn’t right; he danced like someone was watching. One particular someone. His moves felt like a ghost touch on Leo’s skin, a lost breath whispering against him, making every hair in his body stand up on edge.

Otabek kept his eyes closed for almost his entire performance, surely picturing _him_ right in front of him, watching idly, listening closely, staring like a predator would. Leo knew that way to dance, the intention behind it: it was like a bait, alluring; a game where he pretended he was the prey.

And he was so ready to capture that little savage kitten. He could devour the whole fucking jungle if he wanted to.

Leo could almost feel the metallic taste of blood on his mouth from biting down too hard to stop himself for making a sound. Or it could be just the lingering bitter taste of cheap vodka and poor decisions.

Whatever it was, he felt like he just been around the rink for hours, muscles tired and breath jagged, trapped in his throat. Standing in front of the improvised bar, he moved a hand to his lips. The touch felt numb, sure, but the memory on Otabek’s lips against his, bittersweet and hot and somehow delicate, far away, like the whole touch was a thing of his mind.

Shit. He needed to stop drinking.

Leo turned at the couch, where his friend had taken refuge again, an insistent JJ at his side asking something and, he could guess, being blatantly ignored. He decided: both of them needed to stop drinking too.

He prayed for his mother to be asleep by now.

“Here.” He approached the couch and handed Otabek a glass of water, who looked at it like it was poison. “We’re going home, I won’t hear the end of it if mamá sees you like this. Drink up.”

JJ just stared at the exchange.

“This is all on you.” Leo would have sworn Otabek was trying to glare at him, but he could barely keep his eyes open. He was way worse than Leo thought. He probably wouldn’t remember the details of the night, and Leo was starting to lose his patience.

He brushed a hand through Otabek’s hair and tug at it hard enough to make his head clash against the back of the couch. All Otabek dared do as a response was a slow, yet Leo wouldn’t really called deliberate, brush of his tongue against the edge of his teeth, the edge of his upper lip, lidded glassy eyes and putting no effort in releasing himself. Had Leo just figured out a kink?

Why the fuck was he thinking about that? He need to get his shit together. Once and for all. He needed to get to bed. Alone.

“Drink up I said, we’re leaving.” He released him almost in disgust, yet Otabek never broke eye contact while finishing his cup.

Leo felt his knees weaken. Damn it. JJ was looking at them both, eyes wide in disbelief, trying to put two and two together.

Leo wouldn’t give him any more reasons for it; he passed an arm under his friend’s and tried to lift him up. He was helping, sure, but even though he was shorter his body was much more muscle and less graceful; the guy was fucking heavy.

JJ helped them out, handing Leo the pieces of clothing Otabek never put on again: they didn’t feel that cold anyway when they stepped out. Leo couldn’t understand a word his fellow Senior said, mixed in between the chatter and the music and the, ugh, the ringing in his ears.

They were close enough, just a few more blocks away, Leo reasoned, just a bit more. He felt the weight in his shoulders drift.

Otabek stopped walking and wrapped his arms around Leo suddenly. In a fraction of a second.

Leo let him be, supporting his weight on the shoulders again. He heard some babble whispered softly (he was sure, sweetly, too, but who could have guessed) in his ear.

“What?”

It took a second for Otabek to talk again, as if he needed to remind himself to speak English. “I’ll miss you.”

Leo felt a warmth he knew the alcohol wasn’t causing, trickling up on him. “You dork. Or course you will.” He turned his head and lowered his voice not to startle him, as he spoke against the crook of his neck. “And I’ll miss you, too.”

  


They got home, exhausted. Practically dragged themselves up the stairs, making as little noise as possible. That, in a situation like this, meant they were banging every step of the staircase against the tip of their shoes and hitting the doorframe of their way into the room.

They could have never taken out the air mattress in the terrible state they were. Instead, they just shared the bed, Otabek passing out on it after a good ten minutes of Leo convincing him to take the fucking shirt off and Leo fidgeting on the edge of the mattress, the images of his dance still imprinted on his memory, at the back of his eyelids, always there every time he closed his eyes.

He couldn’t sleep.

Fuck.

He walked to the bathroom, as silently as he could; the door clicked shut behind him.

He mentally asked Otabek for forgiveness. He also cursed the guy and his frustrating, sexy, annoying, cute, drunk self.

He just needed to take the urge away from him, biting the heel of his hand to stop himself from making any noise.

Tomorrow it would be another day, and this would be just a drunken memory. Boys be boys and all that shit. Physically, at least, he felt better when he returned to his bed.

He knew it was nothing, fleeting: a voice so sweet it attracted him like a fly towards honey. His primal, alcohol induced needs had overtaken his senses, before he remembered who that voice was coming from: the odd, grumpy boy whose sense of humour only showed once in a blue moon and couldn’t kiss to save his life.

Leo hoped Otabek would find the inspiration he was looking for in Canada. Next time they met, it would be as competitors out on the rink. He was sure Otabek would be there, whatever happened.

* * *

Lucía’s idea to keep Otabek’s suitcases in Leo’s room had been an act of genius, because there was no way Otabek would’ve been able to rush to his dorm after the party. He felt like shit.

“Beku-”

“Don’t talk to me,” he snapped, burying himself under the covers. He wasn’t getting up until late afternoon, he decided. It would be fine. He’d rushed to airports before.

“Beku, you need to get your motorbike,” teased Leo, shoving the bulge under the covers.

“You have it,” mumbled Otabek. “I don’t need that piece of shit anymore.”

“You know I can’t ride it.”

“Then sell it. Or give it away.” Otabek groaned and turned his back to Leo. “Now leave me alone.”

He pointedly ignored Leo’s muttering, “Grumps is back with a vengeance.”

At the very least, he felt better after sleeping in, followed by a full meal. Lucía was out working, so she wasn’t able to see him off, but Leo sat with him in the taxi.

“I forgot to say bye to JJ,” Otabek remembered.

Leo smirked and waved it off. “Just send him a text or something. No big deal.”

Otabek nodded, then fell into silence. He wasn’t sure what he was meant to say. He had some ideas for when they arrived at the airport, but now, was there any point in bringing up a new topic?

He still wasn’t very good at dealing with friends, clearly.

Leo insisted on wheeling both of his suitcases, for some reason. That resolve lasted about a minute, but watching Leo try and fail to keep them both on track definitely lightened the mood.

“I’m glad I moved here,” admitted Otabek, as they waited to drop off his luggage. He trusted Leo to understand why he said that. After all, fangirls, coaching and high school hadn’t really cut it enough to stay.

Leo’s warm smile indicated that he did. “I’m glad I met you here,” he responded. “I hope you get to train in Almaty one day.”

Otabek flashed him a grateful look, then explained, “There aren’t any high ranking coaches willing to go there with an athlete at the moment. I need to do well in my Senior debut if I want to convince anybody.”

“You will.” Leo looked completely assured. “I know you will.”

“Thanks. I know you’ll do well too.”

Otabek paused outside the security gate. “Sorry I’m so awkward. ...I haven’t had to say goodbye like this since I left Kazakhstan.”

Leo chuckled and ruffled his hair. “You poor thing. This is why you keep up to date on social media, you know? Then we can stay in contact just fine.”

Otabek pulled a face.

“Okay, okay, I get it, grandpa,” chuckled Leo. He held out his arms, grabbing Otabek tightly as soon as he stepped forward. “Now we’re exes, right? Gonna miss our fun nights together, Beku bae.”

“You always have to ruin it, don’t you?!”

“Aw, don’t be like that,” giggle Leo, winking cheekily. “What, you didn’t enjoy your first kisses?”

Otabek kept his face blank. “What kisses? I don’t remember any.”

Leo pouted, “Now that’s just mean. Fine, be like that. Use me and leave me, if that’s what you want.” However, Otabek could see the laughter in his eyes.

He rolled his eyes. “Maybe I will. See you in competition, Leo.”

“I look forward to it!”

  


Otabek had never been bad with flights, but the waiting pissed him off like nothing else. Why were flights delayed this often?! Needless to say, he was not in a good mood by the time the plane took off.

However, nothing could’ve prepared him for how much worse it was going to get.

“Otabek! How are you, dude?”

“...JJ?!” What? No way. Why was he here? Why were his parents next to him?! He never said anything about-!

“You should’ve told me you were going to Canada sooner! I mean, I was planning to go later this summer, but you’re lucky I’m here to help you now.”

“How are you on this flight?!”

“Oh, we figured out your spot from what Leo said.”

Leo. That _traitor._ How could he…?! Otabek hadn’t even been told that JJ knew!

“I mean, it doesn’t mean that much, since we’re in different cities, but it’s what, an hour drive? You’ll have a bike! Just come over and visit me! JJ Style can be your Canadian saving grace!” He flashed his signature move with a cocky grin.

“I don’t have a bike anymore.”

“Oh.” JJ thought about it. “Then I guess you’ll just have to take the train!”

“I don’t think I’ll-”

“Dude! The world is an amazing interconnected place. We’ll find a way to meet up!” God, JJ was so loud. Couldn’t he just walk up to Otabek? He was annoying everybody.

“I get you’re upset over breaking up with your boyfriend, but that’s why you have to visit me! You have no choice! I’m not letting you wallow in heartbreak or some shit like that!”

…Leo was a fucking idiot and if they ended up on the same ice this season, Otabek was going to fucking _destroy_ him.


	4. Searching All this Time

When Yuri read the text, he thought his friend was joking. Mocking him.

Sure, it was gonna be his birthday in a couple of weeks, and there was still a lot to do for Worlds, barely some days after that. They surely wouldn’t have time to meet on his actual, but he expected a birthday message on Snapchat, or a silly late gift snuck in on a not-so-infested-with-reporters hallway during the competition.

He most definitely did not expect a text saying Yuri had to be at Pulkovo airport at 20:30 to pick a jet-lagged, exhausted Otabek Altin, who had decided to change his plane ticket just to have a 24 hour stop at Saint Petersburg.

Because it was gonna be Yuri’s birthday soon and he wanted to say hi.

Seriously, who did that?

 

They’d first met just over a year ago, and texted each almost daily from then on. It was easy: Otabek didn’t try to frame Yuri into a persona that he clearly wasn’t, so Yuri didn’t defend himself by playing the opposite character. Otabek just let him speak.

Yuri had never felt so comfortable with anyone. So free to speak his mind.

He made sure Otabek knew this by texting him anything Yuri suddenly found interesting or particularly irritating, like a cute stray cat or Viktor and Katsudon eating each other faces off.

And he was sure Otabek still knew this even if it was taking Yuri some time to reply to his texts lately. Because he was training, or going through his programs, or stretching, or… Most definitely not thinking of the way his voice sounded, low and soft-paced, when they called each other during the night. Not thinking of the way he laughed suddenly, openly, like a wave sweeping off every bit of tension on his shoulders, every thought of doubt, or anger, or sorrow in his mind. Not thinking the way he smiled at Yuri in an impossibly early selfie, still on his bed, shirt pulled a bit to the side revealing the defined line of his collarbone, his eyes clouded with sleep and a grin that could light up the skies…

No, definitely not that. Yuri had been kicking himself mentally every time he had to write to Otabek, cursing the disgusting lovebirds. They must have done something to him; the loveydovey-ness was suddenly contagious. He wanted to tell Otabek constantly how much he’d like to hold him in his arms again. Eugh.

Otabek didn’t have a clue. Yuri had made sure of that.

Yuri did tell him he was gonna meet him at the airport, of course.

He didn’t tell him that being able to see Otabek in person again was the best birthday gift he could ever asked for.

 

And it was exactly how he imagined: a jet-lagged, exhausted Otabek Altin showed up through the glass gates of the airport, hair messy from the flight, a small travel bag on his hand and a suitcase besides him. Yuri ran off to hug him, only to stop midway and approach like a normal human being. _Just be cool, Plisetsky._ He stood right in front of him, hesitated between his options.

The impulse was stronger.

He realized he was holding onto Otabek’s chest as if his life depended on it when the smell of leather and the musky scent of the shirt filled his nostrils. He realized he didn’t let go when he felt the plop of the bag falling onto the floor and two strong arms enveloping him.

They pulled away without a word, and Yuri had so much to say, so desperately. _I missed you._ “... Hey.”

“Hey.” Otabek chuckled and looked down, probably just to pick up his bag. Yuri was surely imagining the darker shade on Otabek’s cheeks as he did so. He must be.

“Let’s go get a cab, yeah?” Yuri pointed at the door, ready to spin on his heels.

Otabek looked up and flashed him that subtle yet so sincere smile of his, “Sure.”

Yuri kicked himself mentally. Again. If only that could stop the rapid blushing too.

He walked quickly to the exit with his friend following close, hoodie up and hair on his face just to hide the red that crept up to his ears, the stupid childish grin on his lips, the excitement. He was finally here.

 

 

Yuri was still with Yakov and Lilia, yet they were getting out more together lately so he would spend some nights alone in the house; Lilia would make sure Yuri had an appropriate dinner ready for him before heading out, so he wouldn’t step out of his diet.

The boy could not possibly believe she would be so naïve. She wasn’t: he knew by the way she made him work the day after something went missing in their kitchen.

This was one of those nights, so Yuri just ran up the stairs, dragging Otabek’s suitcase behind him, banging on almost every step. He waited for him at his bedroom door; it was considerably less messy than how it usually was, mostly because Yuri had made sure to throw everything on the bed and the floor somewhere inside the closet and shut the door forcefully. A fluffy cat, white and black jumped off the bed the minute Otabek crossed the door to smell his ankles and, having considered him worthy enough, rub against him, earning a scratch behind her ears.

“She likes you.” Yuri laughs. Or course she did. Who wouldn’t? Otabek smiled at her and Yuri felt his heart racing so fast it was about to escape his chest. He rolled the suitcase against his bed and sat on the mattress, while Otabek rubbed the back of his head, somehow embarrassed.

“Yuri… Do you mind if I take a shower?”

Yuri practically jumped up the bed. Right, he didn’t even show him the house. To be honest, it was a really big house and it had absolutely no point. “No, man, go to the end of the hallway.” He walked out to show him where the bathroom was and went back to his room while Otabek took a change of clothes and some stuff from his bag to finally leave.

Yuri threw himself hard against the bed. _Relax, what the fuck is wrong with you?!_ He couldn’t stop thinking about how real it all was, how close he finally was. Otabek was literally a hallway away from him, after months of thousands of miles and three hours apart. He felt like he was in a dream.

A dream he hoped wouldn’t finish. Not so quickly. He closed his eyes, savouring the idea of having Otabek all to himself, by his side, after so long.

Something vibrated against wood.

Weird, Yuri’s phone was still in his jacket, discarded over the bed. He turned to his dresser.

Otabek had left his phone. And it rang. Yuri wasn’t one to mess with other people’s stuff, at all. But he left it up there. And it rang.

It could be important.

He took it (Otabek never blocked his phone) and concernedly opened the last notification. An Instagram private message. From some Leo.

Concernedly because it could definitely be something important, something urgent. He was not peeping on his friend’s phone. At all. He never would.

_Hey love congrats on the silver! See you at worlds? <3_

Love.

**Love.**

Yuri felt his blood boil, the phone about to crack in his trembling hand.

No one was allowed to talk to his best friend like that. No one was close enough, Yuri would have known if there was. Otabek didn’t have a partner, couldn’t have; he would have said something.

Right?

He couldn't stop himself.

“Who the fuck are you?” He recorded. Sent. He thought of deleting it, knowing that it was already gone and had reached its destination and that Leo person was gonna read it anyways and _why did he just yell at a stranger on someone else’s phone._

He let the device fall against the dresser again, staring at it like it was a smoking weapon and he had already pulled the trigger.

It rang again. Shit.

_was that yuri plisetsky?_

He knew he shouldn’t. He knew he could just erase it all and pretend it didn’t happen.

_yes?_

He heard the shower stop running. He needed to stop. Now. Just leave it.

_wanna see something fun?_

If he was only that strong.

_what_

 

 

Otabek walked into the room. Yuri knew because he heard his footsteps, but he was still with his back against the dresser, clutching Otabek’s phone like it was precious, a strong tune flowing from the phone over the screaming of cheering clearly way too drunk people, too focused to lift up his gaze.

“Yuri, what are you doing?” He sounded serious. Angry, even. Yuri should just listen, look up. Apologize.

He was stunned. On the screen a younger, leaner Otabek Altin, dressed in formal wear, a white dress shirt half unbuttoned and his sleeves rolled up to his elbows, held onto a microphone  moving softly with the music, mixing with it, like it was flowing through him, rolling his hips up and carefully down. _Singing_. He was singing, and every note rolled off like a new spell gluing him to the spot, preventing him from looking away, every word engraving itself into his mind.

 _So come closer, I wanna feel your touch,_ and Yuri could almost feel the heat emanating from the dancing figure against his body, murmuring the words onto his ears, clutching him from behind, an arm across his middle, making him follow his every move.

He snapped out of it the moment Otabek took the phone away and pressed pause, mouth still agape and eyes wide.

“You were dancing.”

Otabek looked pissed, yes, but Yuri couldn’t take the image, the sound of his voice out of his mind and as pissed as he was, Otabek stood in front of him. Certainly older than in the video, certainly more trained, droplets of water glistening on every curve of his body, the fabric of his black shirt clinging onto his skin as if to show the difference with the boy in the who knows how old, grainy video.

“You took my phone, Yuri.”

“You were singing.” Yuri took a step forward.

Otabek took a step back. “You read my messages.”

“I didn’t know you could do that.” Yuri kept on trying to close the distance between them; something else was gleaming in Otabek’s eyes, but it wasn’t anger. He couldn’t be sure of what it was.

“Where did you even get this?” The back of Otabek’s knees crashed onto the edge of the mattress, forcing him down. Yuri put his hands on Otabek’s shoulders, just to make sure he would stop running away from him.

“Sing for me?”

“... What?”

Yuri’s mind felt like it was short circuiting. Why the fuck would he say that? But then again, all he could think off was how the soft, low _whimpers_ had rolled out of Otabek’s tongue and he wanted to drink every single one like they were the last bit of sustenance in the world.

He looked inside of him for the courage he knew he didn’t have; he’s gone this far, he couldn’t go back now. Yuri took the phone from the bed where it landed and pressed play again. The song started over.

“Sing for me.” He sounded sure, determined like he knew he wasn’t. But Otabek bought it. He breathed in and out, slowly. Looked straight at him.

 _“The way you’re dancing makes me come alive...”_   His tone was much softer that on the video, yet Yuri could feel every hair on his body stand on end, the pulse of every word against him, vibrating against his lips. He couldn’t tell when they got this close, only that he couldn’t pull away. _“So move closer...”_

Yuri couldn’t take it.

His mouth latched forcefully onto Otabek’s, to steal a deep gasp from him and gnaw at his lip. Yuri pulled away slowly. Opened his eyes.

Realized what he just did.

“I, I, I’m…” He felt paralyzed. Numb. So completely terrified. What the fuck? Otabek wasn’t reacting in any way, he was just sitting there, staring at him wide eyed and completely speechless.

He fucked up. He fucked up so bad.

He didn’t notice exactly how, Yuri just knew he ran. He felt the cold wind biting on his skin and realized he was outdoors.

He stopped.

He just kissed his best friend.

_What was he gonna do?_

 

* * *

 

By the time Otabek’s brain had started working again, everything but his hair and patches of his clothes had dried. He… Yuri had…

Otabek touched his lip with a hesitant finger. Part of him knew he should’ve expected it. Dilated, heavy green eyes had told him as much, as he’d sung to Yuri. Still, he couldn’t fully comprehend it.

How long had he imagined this? It had felt hopeless so many times. He could remember shaking in bed after a day of failed jumps and spins, panicking that he’d wasted his time, his life, for nothing. It wasn’t just because of Yuri, but the fear of never being good enough to be worthy of him certainly didn’t help.

Even when Yuri had latched onto him, Otabek had felt guilty to even mention a romantic relationship. How lonely must Yuri have been, to open up to a connection so easily? Otabek loved him, but if that love was best left as friendship, Otabek would’ve tried to deal with it.

But now he knew what it was like to kiss Yuri. And for Yuri to have initiated… Otabek grinned brighter than he ever had before.

He wasn’t too worried about Yuri running away as of yet. He often needed time to collect his thoughts after being overwhelmed. Otabek had faith that he would be back soon and they could talk. Maybe even kiss again? Although, Otabek was willing to let Yuri set the pace. One step at a time.

He was still annoyed that Yuri had gone through his phone, if he was honest. No longer angry - Yuri had washed all of that out of him - but still, it wasn’t like Yuri to go through his stuff.

Well, Leo had something to do with it. JJ would never even think to send something like that. Otabek hoped. He would rather live with the idea that JJ wasn’t interested in keeping a video of Otabek’s drunken Prom escapade.

Otabek gaped as he read through the messages. Seriously? How dramatic could Leo be?! Yes, okay, Yuri sending, “Who the fuck are you?” to Leo was pretty aggressive, although that was usual. Still, that warranted a video? _That_ video? Otabek couldn’t understand. Why such a reaction?

Wait, did Leo think they were together? Already? He might - Yuri using Otabek’s phone in that manner did come across as rather… jealous, to say the least. Still, he should ask.

_Why would you send him that?_

The reply came quickly.

_lol u two are fast ;) youre gonna pay for not telling ur bro about ur success tho_

Otabek sighed and tried to figure out how to best explain.

_We weren’t together. He just acts like that sometimes._

_…_

_you WERENT together ;)_

Otabek stiffened. Shit. Too much information, Leo was going to-

_i want dinner, a simba toy and updates when we meet at worlds cielo <3_

Yeah, take the credit for himself. Even though it was Otabek’s voice that attracted Yuri. And Otabek’s face that Yuri had leant towards. And Otabek’s lips that-

Excuses. Otabek knew to repay Leo eventually. For now, he settled with-

_Thanks. You were right about the sparks._

_;) *image* brofist?_

The attachment had Leo holding out his fist, assumedly wanting Otabek to respond in kind. Otabek rolled his eyes and flashed a response, his middle finger high in the air. Yes, he knew that his common response of ‘fuck off’ was nothing but a laugh for Leo, but really, he was just saying what often crossed his mind when talking to the guy.

_i can see u smiling like an idiot amor. Have fun with ur new bf <3_

Fucking Leo. Otabek was glad to have him as a friend.

 

 

It took Yuri longer to return than Otabek had expected. He wondered in Yuri had been speaking to someone. He may have. Nikiforov and Katsuki probably had plenty of advice for him.

Despite this being his room, Yuri had knocked on the door. Otabek was hit with a wave of both sympathy and adoration at how… vulnerable Yuri looked. Perhaps, Otabek should’ve called him. “Are you okay, Yura?” he asked, more gently than he had ever asked that question before.

His smile for Yuri clearly had an effect. Yuri sniffed and grinned back, jumping forward to hug him so tightly, Otabek had to steady himself.

Otabek buried one hand into blond hair, the other resting on the small of Yuri’s back. “Do you want to talk?”

Yuri shook his head. Otabek chuckled and kissed the top of his hairline; he was more than willing to simply enjoy the moment with him. He stepped back slowly, until they were sitting on the bed together.

He didn’t expect Yuri to keep pressing down, encouraging Otabek to lie down. Wasn’t this a bit fast? However, he realised, when Yuri looked up from his chest, that the teen was exhausted. Otabek relaxed underneath Yuri’s weight and scratched the other’s back slowly, just the way Yuri liked.

“Mm… Beka?” mumbled Yuri. “Sing again.”

Otabek blushed a little. “Sure. ...Not Kitty Litter, though? I mean that’s…” He supposed he wouldn’t mind, but-

“Wait, it’s called Kitty Litter?” Yuri was too tired to shout, but he raised his head to scowl at Otabek. “Are you serious?”

Otabek refused to meet his gaze. “...It wasn’t my choice. Not exactly.”

Yuri narrowed his eyes, but lay his head back down. “Whatever. ...It’s a nice song, I guess. Sing whatever to me.”

Otabek nodded and lay back on the bed, making sure he was in a comfortable position. He probably shouldn’t sing this particular song to Yuri. It was rather cheesy, especially for them. But even so, he went for it.

_“Были рядом, но где-то там, Вдалеке всё искали друг друга…”54_

Yuri grinned into his chest, but his muscles loosened and he snuggled closer. Otabek closed his eyes and tried to implant every aspect of this moment into his head. The warmth of Yuri’s frame, the small movements of his breathing that matched Otabek’s own. Could Yuri hear his heartbeat? Could he feel the joy and content that was spreading throughout Otabek’s nerves, even as the rest of his body drifted off?

The tempo slowed as Otabek struggled to keep his eyes open. Notes drifted off and even though he knew he was far from the original version of the song at this point, Otabek refused to give into sleep. He needed to stay awake as long as possible, enough to be sure that this was real life. It wasn’t some crazed hallucination caused by jet lag and post match exhaustion.

_“Не потеряй, убереги, удержи меня…”55_

Yuri must have been close to asleep by the time Otabek reached the last refrain. The tight hold on Otabek’s shirt had loosened, although it hadn’t gone entirely. Otabek felt almost overwhelmed by affection when he placed his hand underneath Yuri’s, to feel a returning, albeit sleepy grip.

Otabek practically murmured the last few words, his hand on Yuri’s back slowing down. Tomorrow, they would need to discuss in more detail the turn in their relationship. Otabek refused to let this go easily. For now, he rested with the bliss that this would be the first of many nights this close to Yuri.

 

* * *

 

54\. [[Инь - Ян - Не отпускай моей рук]](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RisKqPxDOek)↩

55\. [Don't lose, save and don't let me go]↩


End file.
